Replying to a comment on:

Middle-Aged White Woman (Free verse) by Dovina

Maybe it’s time. You look at me and see a symbol of conservative acts that hurt you. My kind abused your kind. Now with your freedom, your authority, your power, it’s time for retribution. Go ahead, ignore me, don’t hire me belittle me in your verse skip over me at your readings. My ancestors did it to your ancestors. You have the right. It’s a new experience for me, that’s all. Maybe it’s time.

zodiac 10-Apr-05/9:50 PM
I am openminded about the past. I don't think the past should have anything to do with the present situation - which, as I see it, is pretty much:

Black people still don't have freedom or equality of pay, opportunity, education, or power across the board. Sure, my greatgreatgreatgrandparents, had they been rich enough, would have enslaved yours, but also my grandparents are racist, belittle minorities, and deny them opportunities. My parents belittle minorities and deny them opportunities. And tons of people in my generation, myself probably no exception, continue the problem by often-unnoticeable actions.

What I was trying to point out is that Dovina's thinking (in the poem) that the problem's solved now, was solved years ago, and she had nothing to do with it is simply nuts. Who needs to go back even a generation to find crimes/persecution against black people? And at the very least, I'd say Dovina has very few black friends in the outside world.

Besides, what a preposterous suggestion - that one side's history of (and continuing) institutionalized oppression can be "balanced out" or "made up for" by black people whupping white ass for a while! If an intelligent black person's ever seriously considered it, I'm a stuck pig.

And besides, black people have been ignoring white people in their verse, culture, etc, from the beginning. Only a Eurocentrist in the extreme would even imagine she had a place in black verse to be belittled. (For Dovina: Disagree? Consider checking out Gullah culture, Hoodoo culture, Slave culture, Jack Tales, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, and hip-hop, to name a very, very few.)

In short, I don't think you're going to give up your friendship with Dovina because of this poem, because I think you see, as I do, that Dovina doesn't really mean to be offensive; she just doesn't know very well what she's saying. That's all I'm trying to point out to her. Really, I've got no beef with Dovina except that she doesn't express herself very well. All things considered, her heart's pretty close to the right place.




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