In class on Tuesday, we listened to the poem skinhead which was performed by Patricia Smith. This poem was very interesting simply because Patricia, who is obviously an African-American woman recites a poem from the point of view of a white supremacists. She portrays this man as someone who justifies his actions of hating the black, homosexual, and female oriented cultures. This poem was very deep and strong felt simply because Patricia spoke out against a variety of cultures in which white supremacists tend to antagonize. Her physical appearance in comparison to her voice throughout this poem is very powerful because the message she was sending was unexpected. I received her message as a justification for skinheads or white supremacists in a means to them being raised and created by the American culture. At the end she says “and remember I was born right here” referring to America. I believe her to have been playing into society’s views on Blacks, homosexuals, and women in general to have been the reasons behind white supremacists in the first place. One question It raises for me though is through America’s early ages and early policies, is the white supremacists actions to be justified?
-Lavelle Hughes
That question is probably one of the mot difficult ones you could ask, as far as the indoctrination of white supremacy goes. If we try to put this into a historical context, we could easily conclude that this understanding simply was the way that society functioned (it may seem like the cop-out/non-descriptive answer, but it is veritable still, I think). Anti-black or anti-homosexual sentiments have been passed on through as deeply ingrained suppositions, because they were justified TO THEM as truth, regardless of what outside society could've believed. Especially when we start talking about such policies as slavery and later Jim Crow. These continued racist understandings about blacks, where those who were taught that African Americans were not equal AT ALL truly believed it. The same idea could be had for the discrimination of the queer community.
ReplyDeleteTo ask whether or not these activities and sentiments proliferated among "anti-" additudes were JUSTIFIED may be trying too hard to get close to a conclusive answer. I think that it was (and still is) just a fact of these understandings about blacks and homosexuals that they exist. Just as we except the fact that many of our Founding Fathers were owners of slaves, and perhaps held the same kind of views (the Declaration of Independence was a fickle thing regarding this). Hindsight is 20/20 as we see discrimination and hatred as morally wrong and not feasible, but those feelings had persisted as FACT for many others into the Jim Crow era.
In addition to this, I would further extend the discussion to the basis of morality and the law. As far as the 13th Amendment goes, Thaddeus Stevens' defense of the same advocated, not for equality in "all things", but for absolute equality under law. If we could disucss this from the side of politics and society together, we could come to the heart of some interesting questions.
I know that much of this had little to do with the text itself, but I think that talking through these complexities would allow us to look at such a poem in a fresh lens, and possibly scrutinize the intentions or understandings of the author.
If we look at the situation of the African American community today, we still see the remnants of years of oppression. High poverty rates, high incarceration rates, and low life expectancy. This is, of course, not the fault of the community, but rather, the result of various external factors (e.g. slavery, Jim Crow laws, etc.). While I do not think the white supremacist is being justified, the poet is applying the same line of logic. Rather than blaming the individual, she's calling on her audience to look at the origins of that hatred. That includes some of the same factors that have placed the African American community in the socioeconomic predicament that it is in today. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, anti-sodomy laws have not only oppressed minorities, but they have also warped the mindset of poor, white Americans. The system has instilled in that community that not only is it superior but any negative occurrences in life have an "other" to blame -- be it blacks, Hispanics, or gays. The poet's purposeful induced discomfort is bold, and it asks us to sympathize with an ideology we are quick to write-off as simple hatred and bigotry.
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