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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 22-Apr-05/10:18 AM
You're way off the mark.

Incidentally (and, shamefully, without bothering to consult your past comments), it strikes me that you really started thinking -=Dark_Angel=-,P.I. (or, to a lesser extent, I) was racist because he said a bunch of things like "this poem is as appealing as a refrigerator-truckful of suffocated Negro refugees" - i.e., in terms of bias, something equivalent to your giraffe metaphor.

Can I conclude that you're not being ironic, then? Do you even know?

PS-As I said below, I think it's unfair to equate a bias with racism, sexism, or whatever. As far as I can tell, people will inevitably have biases. But a more severe bias just doesn't necessarily correspond to more racist behavior. To wit, accept for a minute that -=Dark_Angel=-,P.I. does have a stronger bias toward whites than you (or I) do. Does that mean he (in good faith) writes more poems or comments denigrating blacks than you or I do? Of course not. Your poem is actually racist; his posts are usually just making fun of people who are unknowingly (or hypocritically) racist.

PPS-I'm willing to accept that you've totally unknowingly created a racist poem, and to apologize for calling you, rather than the poem, racist. However, I'd say there are probably a lot more unknowing racists, or people who are racist by carelessness, than people who are knowingly racist. If the poem were all I had to go by, I'd have to say you're racist - despite knowing that you're really a decent, loving person.

PPPS-I'm writing this way because I'm drunk and have been reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in downtown Amman. How's your Friday night going?




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