Julie, I think all that you say is not incorrect. But let me now riff a little on a minor part of your post. I think in some cases, a kind of strawman argument can be created where "white", traditional, male poetry is assoeciated with a kind of atypical idea of "page" poetry, while other ethnicities can be weirdly tied to a different, but equally singular definition. So, we get the strange idea that instead of finding a good range of black poets, for example, you just teach kids hip-hop so they can learn about the "black experience", like there's any one black experience. I think at times, a kind of white, liberal establishment can kind of fetishise showing kids other ethnic experiences by tying those experiences to a singular form of art atypical of "other" groups. So, for one thing, difficult and conceptually demanding poetry can be often attached to a kind of poetry that is generally seen as the domain of white academics, while other ethnicities are expected to produce poetry that speaks in easily-understandable language about racism and opression, and any more complicated, linguistically demanding, or confusing work by poets of colour (what a strange and abetting phrase, that, "poets of colour", like whiteness wasn't itself a racial identity ripe for unpicking) goes quietly passed over. My proof for all this speculation is: how many of you have heard of Jay Wright, one of the greatest poets working in English right now?
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