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Walk like freedom

As much as I usually dislike poetry, I've been finding the poems that people are choosing to read in class very powerful in a way that most poetry I've been forced to read in the past just wasn't. I felt like the poems have been more effective than the novels at expressing their protests. The poem I wanted to write about is "Walk Like Freedom" by Carolyn Rodgers.

In the class discussion, people (I don't remember who sorry) brought up how carefree the white woman is in the poem and how entitled both white people are. The woman's carefreeness is shown by how she comments on the weather. As if the only thing she has to worry about is the weather. This shows her privilege as it shows that she is worrying about such small things. It also shows her privilege in that she feels entitled to better weather than there is currently. The man shows his entitlement when he says that "the train must not be late" as if the world should change for him and he is the most important person in the world. This entitlement is something that only someone who has been brought up privileged and being told that they are better could experience and is something that pretty much only white people in America experience (especially when this was written but even now).

This was so interesting to because I've always been the type of person who is annoyed by comments like "the train must not be late," and I didn't really recognize what caused those kinds of comments. Now that I think about it, the only people that I've ever heard saying things like that are privileged people and even today the vast majority of those people are white. This is exactly what the poem is pointing out, when it says all the author hears is "I am white and/we run/the world.

That said,  (and I could be completely wrong on this) considering how the poem ends I think that the author isn't protesting this kind of entitlement but saying that everyone should be able to have it. At first this was kind of weird to me because I would have thought that entitlement is a bad thing (especially when it is caused by race) but I think I can understand wanting to have access to a life where the biggest worry you have is the weather or being a few minutes late for a meeting.

Comments

  1. Good post! I especially agree with your last paragraph when you lay out what exactly the poem is advocating for. I think that sometimes when white people in particular vocalize their grievances about the weather and such, it can be taken in different ways depending on how they say it. If they are utterly distraught over being late to a meeting (which is the "type" that the author is addressing), then yes, those worries are from the more privileged. However, if someone (no matter race, gender, etc.) says something like, "shoot, its raining and I forgot my umbrella," then I think that is just another worry that is added to the list.

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  2. When someone takes things for granted, they complain about smaller problems. Like how we say our phones have inadequate battery life, while people elsewhere live under harsh governments and without food.

    I think this poem is interesting in that neither side, Black nor White, has intentions of being racist.

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  3. I'm totally with you. For one, I've never really been able to connect to poetry, but I'm also finding these poetry discussions extremely powerful. I also like the idea you brought up about everyone being entitled to the privileges white people have. Of course, then they wouldn't be privileges, but it's an interesting idea because we often focus on white people acting less entitled than actually entitling everyone else.

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  4. I never thought about what you talk about in the last paragraph but having read it it makes a lot of sense. I love the idea that the author isn't just complaining that the people are complaining about such inconsequential problems but is complaining that everybody should just be worried about things like that. It reminds me of "To The Pale Poets" talked about wanting to be privileged enough to write about flowers and nature.

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  5. Nice reflections, Izzy. What you said in the last paragraph especially got me thinking, and its a new perspective. But I would say Rodgers was trying to point out the white supremacy that underlies our day to day conversations, which causes us not to focus on the real issues that peoples of color face.

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