[R. S. Gwynn]

I posted this poem on Facebook, asking, "Is this racist? Or just unfair?" Opinions have been mixed.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...GXw5CSFfhxyuPA

[Roger Slater]

I've read it twice, and perhaps not thought about it long enough to answer, but what the heck. I don't think it's either racist or unfair. I like it.

[Jayne Osborn]

Unlike Bob, I'm not keen on it; it's just not my kind of poetry, I guess, but that's another issue altogether....

But, like Bob, which is more to the point, I don't think it's racist or unfair either.

[Mark McDonnell]

The image of 20 giggling girls and all of them blonde, while not racist seems a bit implausible. And I think the use of Goldilocks isn't quite the subversive point that Dove seems to think it is. I think most kids, whatever their race, see Goldilocks as a spolied intruder who kind of gets what she deserves. But I think the poem works pretty well and I like it up to the last two words. Up till then I believe it as a portrait of an African American speaker justifiably at the end of their tether given current events and the history preceding them, but acknowledging the subjective nature of their emotions and irritability ("Unfair, /I know, my aggression"). The last two words seem to tip it into a sense of inevitability that these girls are going to grow up (presumably) adding to the sum of racism in the world. It feels a little like a cheap horror movie twist that doesn't convince like the rest of the poem.

Of course this reaction could just be my white fragility talking.

[John Riley]

Nothing racists or unfair. I like it. It’s about the narrator’s perceptions.

[Bill Dyes]

If you believe you live in a society that is still racist, it is certainly not unfair.
If you believe that the society is past all that, it is both racist and unfair.

Bill

[Kevin Rainbow]

Originally Posted by R. S. Gwynn

I posted this poem on Facebook, asking, "Is this racist? Or just unfair?" Opinions have been mixed.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...GXw5CSFfhxyuPA

I think it is both racist and unfair, though obviously not in an extreme or harsh way.

The speaker is suggesting these girls are worthy of a negative bias and stereotype about white people based on the fact that they are white, in conjunction with other superficial aspects. It is an example of mentally stooping to racism (negative bias based on race) and engaging in racial-profiling.

As far as the format, I don't see anything that makes it a poem. Anyone could present an excerpt from a novel thus. It is simply prose in line breaks.

[Roger Slater]

And sonnets are simply prose in iambic pentameter with rhymes.

[Andrew Szilvasy]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

And sonnets are simply prose in iambic pentameter with rhymes.

It really baffles me that there are still people fighting a needless fight lost 100+ years ago.

[Jayne Osborn]

Kevin said:

As far as the format, I don't see anything that makes it a poem. Anyone could present an excerpt from a novel thus. It is simply prose in line breaks.

I think you and I are alone with that opinion, Kevin! Oh well, each to his - or her - own... though I don't see it as racist, nor unfair, so we're not in complete agreement.

Jayne