Wow.....................................Wild Thing by Sapphire just blew my mind. In this week's discussion of homage and family, this poem slightly confuses you on who he can pay his respects to. It reminds me of a typical psycho serial rapist killer story that we see in almost every reality cop television show. How a kid from the ghetto is initially fascinated by what is portrayed in the media: fast cars, shiny jewelry, and over-sexual females, and the media becomes his primary source of information. His mother isn't modeling good parenting or behavioral skills, instead she puts him off as a mentally challenged child just to collect extra money from the government. So the boy goes go to be negatively influenced more than ever by his peers AND the media as he turns of teenage age. The one thing that stuck out to me in this poem was the normalcy to rape. There have been many studies on how young boys if not raised with the proper respect to women, or positive role models of women, will exploit them in their lifetime. Sometimes I don't think that people consider the urgency and significance to this problem. Family as defined by dictionary.com is parents and their children; considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not. What I don't understand is when did the word FAMILY become something that should not be defined as loving, caring, responsible, charitible, or irreplaceable? I have always believed in the quote "It takes a village to raise a child" and I continue to stand by that. When a child does not have structure, s/he goes on in life not knowing how to make responsible positive decisions, or given the ability to know that there are not only two side to a story but several. . . two lines that caught my eye I EITHER WANNA BE A COP/ OR THE BIGGEST DOPE DEALER IN HARLEM. If someone states that those are the only two careers they would be looking forward to something is very wrong with our judicial system and economy in general. How can someone compare a cop to a drug dealer? I perceive this situation as a child viewing a cop as someone that can always push around a drug dealer, or be the drugs dealer's boss, due to their beig such a large population of dirty cops. If a child views these two occupations on the same playing field then what more can one say that a child may have respect to the law? NONE! . . . the last most interesting piece of the poem is towards the end. (The end of poems always rap it up for me) UGLY BIG NOSE WHITE BITCH/ BUT SHE'S BEAUTIFUL CAUSE SHE'S WHITE/ SHE'S BEAUTIFUL CAUSE SHE'S SKINNY/ SHE'S BEAUTIFUL CAUSE SHE'S GONNA DIE/ CAUSE HER DADDY'S GONNA CRY/ BITCH!....the anger instilled in these lines are astronomical. The fact that the boy views a white woman as beautiful just because she is white is problem within itself. This poem portrays as I said before how many young men of color grow up in today's society. There is an underrepresentation of positive females of color in the media, magazines, cartoons, reality shows, corporations, and so on. This poem incorporates a lifestyle that someone can immediately identify as being raised in the United States. The line SHE'S BEAUTIFUL CAUSE SHE'S GONNA DIE, is all about power and degradation of women, the lesser sex. If we are not able to speak our minds, have input on democracy and government, be financially secure, or comfortable with our bodies with no alterations, not being able to do those things are seen as beautiful, because not being able gives someone else power. If you have the upper hand in society and your counterparts don't you are strongly encouraged to see that as beautiful because it gives you POWER. So all in all this poem executed a great perspective on power, sterotypes, and reality. . .
-Dorothy
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You make interesting points here remember that for many young people especially male its the pursuit of power. Children who don't have a stable home structure often grow up feeling powerless so they are interested in positions that recreate the power dynamics of their neighborhoods, upbringing, and etc. Unfortunately rape is often masked as an act of love because a person is trying to perceive how they can gain and exhibit power in a society where they otherwise have none, Toni Morrison's Bluest Eye is a great example.
ReplyDeleteSo we write poems and sometimes take classes to change the dynamics of power, beauty, love, and family in our society.
That poem was waaaaaay deep. It made me think of my brother for some reason. It's not his life but there were a lot of points when I thought "Wow that sounds like him" or "Is this what he's thinking about right now?"
ReplyDeleteit's also very successful as a persona poem. and the story under the story is a way of slicing through the skin of the stereotypes.
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Dorothy, Thanks for writing:
ReplyDelete“when did the word FAMILY become something that should not be defined as loving, caring, responsible, charitible, or irreplaceable? I have always believed in the quote "It takes a village to raise a child."”
I couldn’t agree with you more. I think we all need to create the larger group to belong to and be responsible to and be exposed to – whether it means we’re redefining “family” or just recognizing that people can’t do everything within their own little group. We need neighbors and friends and more support and different power arrangements. I found your comments about power and women particularly thought-provoking.
as a poem too it takes the voice & persona of the perpetrator of violence. In this way we as readers are forced to examine the character's inner workings, perhaps see ourselves or others in the demeanor. We must wrangle with the idea of identification with the speaker. What happens when we write from the perspective of one who commits violence? Does that give us a more complex picture of interpersonal and social systems? If we as readers must consider both the perpetrator and the target of violence how does that change our relationship to the work and the character's world?
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