Rita would probably say you were having "a blonde moment", Jayne. ;)

The speaker of the poem is Dove herself, we assume, an older black woman in traffic, irritated by lots of giggling blonde girls taking too long to cross the road. Somewhere behind her is a statue of the Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, so the link is made between the girls' whiteness and historical, institutional racism, the suggestion being that the girls are, or will become, part of that problem. Bill is saying that if you accept that institutional racism is still a problem then the speaker is justified, or at least her anger is, and if you don't then her anger isn't justified and the poem is racist against the girls. Others might say that even if you accept the existence of institutional racism her anger at these girls, or at least the focus on their blondeness/whiteness, is still unjustified.

I suppose one could argue (if one wanted to) that the speaker is sexist and ageist as well. I think, as John says, that the poem is a depiction of the speaker's heightened emotional state. It's a portrait of anger, which doesn't always follow logic, and doesn't necessarily have to in order to be justified.

Of course there's a third option, that whether the poem is racist or not is less interesting than the fact that the discussion it has provoked demonstrates how hard it is to write about this stuff.

I Iove Dove's poem "Hades Pitch".

Cross posted with Bill (oh, and Aaron and Andrew).

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From multiple standpoints — authenticity, sonics, language, modernity, scope, transcendence — I think it's a terrific poem. I don't detect any appreciable racism or unfairness. Yet.

All the chips are falling where they may. Tomorrow I may take back what I stand behind today.
.
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I like it.
It balances lightly on the line between a sour mood and something larger.
The cautionary so far at the end is a necessary stroke, if you ask me.

Nemo

In my opinion the low level pun on Jackson is just a way of saying 'Man, fuck Stonewall Jackson'.
I used to make puns about the 'White House'. Would it be an even lower-level pun now that Obama has lived there. Still...'Man, fuck the White House'.
The third option is this: Racism turns us all into racists at some level. That's the real shame.

As far as if the poem is good enough to be in the New Yorker. I've got no comment on that.

Bill

Good enough to be in the (present-day) New Yorker!!?? Hah. Again, hah! A third time, hah!

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That's a good way of looking at it, Bill. Who could blame the speaker for her reactions given the situation and the history, but what a tragedy it's come to this. That's all there in the poem. I completely believe in the authenticity of the speaker's mood and why she is feeling it. Of course the poem isn't racist. As to whether it might be unfair, well, that's kind of the point and she acknowledges that.
Nemo, I just found something about the placement of "So far" both poetically slightly weak and dramatically slightly OTT. That sense of a 'twist' ending. I wonder if just moving the phrase and the emphasis might have worked better:

Unfair,
I know, my aggression—to lump them

into a gaggle (silly geese!) when all
they’re guilty of, so far, is being young.

I'm fine with the 'stonewalling us all' line. It seemed a believable authentic throwaway pun, rather than an attempt at anything too poetically clever. I think the poem is pretty good. How hard it must be to write about the current moment successfully. But I don't read much current American poetry. Maybe Andrew and Aaron are aware of much better ones.

Mark:

I accepted the employ of the low-level pun on 'stonewall' as an added level of disdain for the man and his stature. As if he were unworthy of any more considered thought.

And the final 'so far' as a last tired hold on 'innocence' before America pours in.

Both the New Yorker and Rita Dove have made their mark and are really not dependent on one another or this forum.


Bill

Hey Bill

Yes, I'm agreeing with you.

I can see that. I like how you put it.

That's true. For myself, it's not often I get the heady thrill of rewriting a line from a Pulitzer Prize winner's poem. Couldn't resist. :)

How current are we talking? I think Rickey Laurentis has written some fine poems on race and racism. For example, this, the first poem in Boy with Thorn (apologies for poor image quality; it's a screenshot of the Amazon preview):

https://i.imgur.com/tmOj5Yw.png