maybe the problem will just fix itself
Having now 'fessed up about my Warblers hate, I can move on to more interesting things:
A while ago
delux_vivens posted about a white male poet being asked about his work by a black female poet, which went down just about as well as you could imagine. (Click on *AWP at Claudia Rankine's website to read Tony Hoagland's poem, Rankine's letter to him, and his reply to her wherein he calls her "naive when it comes to the subject of American racism" [!!!]).
Anyhow, a number of other writers/poets/etc. wrote open letters that are not so much about the exchange in particular but more to do with race representations in the States. The letters are archived at Rankine's site, but if you don't feel like wading through them here's some of the ones I found particularly interesting:
. Beth Loffreda - "Another effect of this period was that white people began to praise each other for talking about race. It was brave to write about it. But saying it is brave to write about one's whiteness is not unlike saying it is brave to live inside a house."
. Christina Springer - "in class, a girl smirks, then smiles. 'my family could have owned your family.'"
. Eleanor Henderson - "She nodded, cautious but interested, as I unfolded the plot. And then I told her. 'The narrator is a black woman. A maid.'"
. Francisco Aragon - "Then he emerges from the top of the ascending steps, college-aged like me. They spot his lighter hair, and something's aglow as they walk toward him, us."
. Hans Ostrom - "the report
was many things, but what it
wasn't was complicated,
sophisticated, news, or
helpful."
. Hila Ratzabi - "I even looked white, but never felt white. Everyone around me was Jewish. Some were browner than others, like my dad."
. Hossannah Asuncion - "I know enough of the imprecision of talking about race. It feels like choosing a violent failure or a violent failure--to say something or to not say something."
. Jennifer Chang - "I was any Chang, any Asian. I was a type, not an individual. A synonym."
. Jenny Browne - "My parents had sent me a letter in Africa reporting that my little sister was dating 'a black guy.' That was all he was described as being."
. Jocelyn Lieu - "Others who don't accurately peg me tend to think I'm American Indian, Latina, or Italian. They fill in the blank. They create the blank to fill in."
. Joelle Biele - "Later we talked, and I remember
wondering if time could take the island back
to what it was before Robert Stafford took
Elizabeth Bernardey as his slave, if the island
could just be a beautiful ruin ..."
. Maryam Afaq - "The discussion grazed briefly over the 'first wave, second wave, third waves' of feminism here in the USA and someone commented on how sad it was that 'the first wave has not even reached some places in the world.'"
. Maureen Seaton - "Equality is a big thing for me, justice is all I care about and it drives me crazy, but I never really knew a black person up close until I met Lori and fell in love with her."
. Nancy Haiduck - "Not in the house, but Annie had her friends,
and she could cook, and she could sew, but no,
she never did learn to read or write."
. R. Erica Doyle - "It's okay if you can't tell what I am. I know.
I know. I am trying to stay awake. I am trying to do all of this with love."
comments over yonder on http://bossymarmalade.dreamwidth.org/515277.html, y'all.
A while ago
delux_vivens posted about a white male poet being asked about his work by a black female poet, which went down just about as well as you could imagine. (Click on *AWP at Claudia Rankine's website to read Tony Hoagland's poem, Rankine's letter to him, and his reply to her wherein he calls her "naive when it comes to the subject of American racism" [!!!]).
Anyhow, a number of other writers/poets/etc. wrote open letters that are not so much about the exchange in particular but more to do with race representations in the States. The letters are archived at Rankine's site, but if you don't feel like wading through them here's some of the ones I found particularly interesting:
. Beth Loffreda - "Another effect of this period was that white people began to praise each other for talking about race. It was brave to write about it. But saying it is brave to write about one's whiteness is not unlike saying it is brave to live inside a house."
. Christina Springer - "in class, a girl smirks, then smiles. 'my family could have owned your family.'"
. Eleanor Henderson - "She nodded, cautious but interested, as I unfolded the plot. And then I told her. 'The narrator is a black woman. A maid.'"
. Francisco Aragon - "Then he emerges from the top of the ascending steps, college-aged like me. They spot his lighter hair, and something's aglow as they walk toward him, us."
. Hans Ostrom - "the report
was many things, but what it
wasn't was complicated,
sophisticated, news, or
helpful."
. Hila Ratzabi - "I even looked white, but never felt white. Everyone around me was Jewish. Some were browner than others, like my dad."
. Hossannah Asuncion - "I know enough of the imprecision of talking about race. It feels like choosing a violent failure or a violent failure--to say something or to not say something."
. Jennifer Chang - "I was any Chang, any Asian. I was a type, not an individual. A synonym."
. Jenny Browne - "My parents had sent me a letter in Africa reporting that my little sister was dating 'a black guy.' That was all he was described as being."
. Jocelyn Lieu - "Others who don't accurately peg me tend to think I'm American Indian, Latina, or Italian. They fill in the blank. They create the blank to fill in."
. Joelle Biele - "Later we talked, and I remember
wondering if time could take the island back
to what it was before Robert Stafford took
Elizabeth Bernardey as his slave, if the island
could just be a beautiful ruin ..."
. Maryam Afaq - "The discussion grazed briefly over the 'first wave, second wave, third waves' of feminism here in the USA and someone commented on how sad it was that 'the first wave has not even reached some places in the world.'"
. Maureen Seaton - "Equality is a big thing for me, justice is all I care about and it drives me crazy, but I never really knew a black person up close until I met Lori and fell in love with her."
. Nancy Haiduck - "Not in the house, but Annie had her friends,
and she could cook, and she could sew, but no,
she never did learn to read or write."
. R. Erica Doyle - "It's okay if you can't tell what I am. I know.
I know. I am trying to stay awake. I am trying to do all of this with love."
comments over yonder on http://bossymarmalade.dreamwidth.org/515277.html, y'all.