Poemranker [Replying] Sun Nov 24 08:48:59 PST 2024

Replying to a comment on:

They were variously toned, but harmoniously united. They broadcast a whole, surpassing parts summed. Soprano: orientally quick, precise. Alto: whitely sharp, analytical. Tenor: latinly soulish, devoted. Bass: Africanly smooth, limber. But they were all the same race, geneticists say.

zodiac

22-Dec-05/9:47 AM

(1) Geneticists don't say. They say race as a biological construct depends on a very small genetic difference. No geneticist would deny that there is a difference, ergo different races. Only your straw man would say that. Surely you can see the distinction.

DOVINA: Some random comment of zodiac's on race.
ZODIAC: You are kind of clueless, aren't you?

(2) Geneticists say nothing about the cultural or other differences between races, which seem to be the basis for the rest of your poem. Unless you're going to argue that latinos are genetically "soulish".

(3) Despite all that, you've still managed to be racist. The whites are the "analytical" ones? Please get over yourself.
DOVINA: Some random denial.
ZODIAC: Your metaphor has Asians "quick" and "precise", whites "sharp" and "analytical", latins "soulish" and "devoted" - and blacks "smooth" and "limber"??!? Tell me, were you ever planning on giving blacks mental or psychological features, like you gave the other races? Or just physical ones, brutes that they are? What mental features would you give them? (Suggestions: Docile! Brooding! Rhythmical!) Does it bother you that, at best, this poem is a dictionary of outdated racial stereotypes obviously written by someone with little experience of other races and a profound, unacknowledged sense of white superiority?
DOVINA: You've failed to get it. I'm talking about instruments.
ZODIAC: If you say that you're the biggest guffer ever and ought to crawl in a hole and die of shame.
DOVINA: You've failed to get it. I'm talking about instruments. I'm clever.
ZODIAC: ...

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