Reacting to Othering: Instruments of Expression

I think with this set of poems the issue at large seems to be capturing the reaction of any given difference. Not the difference that they see in others, but the difference they see placed upon themselves and the value of their lives as a result. However this reaction plays itself out in a few different ways.

One is an acknowledgement, as we see in “Eggs on City Limits.”

Another is a refusal of acceptance or cry of resistance, which we see in “Dear White America” and “Snake Tongue: Lengua de Culebra”

And the last is a curious case of hope or wishing as seen in, “Dinosaurs in the Hood.”

It would be easy to suggest that as poets their literary voices are the instruments that they use to be heard, but I’d like to consider that within the narrative of each of these poems, the reactions are used as a lense to view perspectives of indifference from the Othered side. Within the three reactions I offered, there are two which openly juxtapose each other in their reaction to the vilification and violence (whether in language or in action) towards the minority.

In “Dinosaurs in the Hood” we are presented with a narrator who wants to see a film be made, through this poem they list all the things they don’t want to happen with this movie. It being directed by a white man. There having to be differentiating and proactive Othering of  other groups. They don’t want Will Smith, the pinnacle of Black respectability politics. They don’t want any politics at all. No metaphors, no emphasis on race (and no colorblindness to be sure) just a movie that happens to have Black folks, featuring a little Black boy with his toys. Eyes open, dreams possible. Or, for arguments sake, completely innocent.

What our narrator (or poet) does not want in this movie creates the implication that these are negative things that work to further stigmatize and Other Black lives and the Black experience. As I said previously, there is some hope to be found here - however small - in the thought that a young Black boy can be innocent and have dreams. Smith, reacts to racism and discrimination not with a vengeance, but with a hope - a wish - of a future he wants to see (albeit in movie form) all for the dreams of youth.

Then take “Eggs on City Limits” which has no hope at all. We have a 26 year old acknowledging their own nativity and coming into the world, ready for a world...perhaps not the one they thought they’d have to face; because as they walk they are burdened with feelings of emptiness coming from within themselves and as they go further they discover the brains of other young people “splattered” Alburquenque writes. There are actual people, “eggshells” beginning to crack covered in the collective emptiness and despair, we come to the conclusion that here on the streets are the splattered dreams of inner city youth.

One is wishing better for someone else and the other is acknowledging the damage; not really having anything to say after this point. Both poems end on the thread of dreams, one where a child can have them and another where the dreams are gone. The instrument of reaction in both these poems provides a contradicting and yet complementary view into the effects of racism, giving a voice to pain.