Post 10 - TD

The Universal and the particular, how do they support each other?

Particular experiences need to be empowered, not homogenized into universal multiculturalism. Why? Not because of the divisiveness the  government uses as a “divide and conquer” goal, quite the opposite.  The particular experience, and to be specific based on the assigned text,the Black experience, is particular to African descendants who were enslaved in the United States. Black is an identity fought for, we were  branded nigger, turned negro, marked African American, and then arriving at BLACK , not by the description of a census, but by the struggle to reclaim our identity free from outsider definition. Black  with a capital b is more than a skin color but starts with the richness of the hue. Thus text like Of Poetry and Protest are needed. A text that focuses on the diaspora here in the states, writing about the specific and particular story of the Black Holocaust, the PTSS some endure, the  Emmett Till’s to Trayvon Martin’s we have buried is essential to creating a larger platform to understand how “ism” operate on a universal scale. Black and white relations are  so polarized that it effortless sheds light on the moral incompetence of society in a way that demands attention, and through the fight for Civil rights and other Black led revolutions  like BPP , and Negritude,  many other ‘isms” were able to find a platform to demand equality.  Hopefully sooner than later the plight of placing a mirror to the reflection of inhumanity won’t fall so heavily on the abused backs of Black folks, and as stated in the intro by Michael Warr, the hope of this text is for it to be read in disbelief one day by folks who live in a world free of sanctioned murders and protest. Warr closes with “ I hope that one day this book becomes a relic.”

Until that day we are in protest, writing poems  like, Infernal by Tyehimba Jess, where the narrator uses his voice to illustrate the emotions of protest and riots against the system, how it influences him and his father. : “ My father ran into the streets to claim a small part of my people’s anger with his Kodak, a portrait of the flame that became our flag long enough to tell us there was no turning back, the we’d burn ourselves clean of all doubt…” “ how my father’s worthy rage is worth nothing at all  =  manifestation       “ in the scheme of it all, we survived, mostly by fleeing the flames while sealing their heat n our minds…”  I’m signing the best way I know about the way I’ve run from one fire to another…” In the scheme of it all we survived… that is the lasting thing I am interested in,  the survival , the  longevity of the   witnesses. The scribe, who by way of creative autonomy , prompts the mind to analyze the inhumanity of racism  from a visceral place. . I think poetry is a conduit able to erase cognitive dissonance from the oppressors psyche without them knowing it.I believe the freedom of poetry is what is capable of indicting the reader before he knows what has hit him. Like wrapping a pill in a sweet roll so the sick will ingest it…Poetry, protest poetry, does that.