Reader: Dianna Bassett

Respondent: Jerri Laurel-Lyra         Recorder: Geri Spratlin

“The Battle, Over and Over Again”

By Safiya Henderson-Holmes

About the author:

I found that there is not a lot written about my author.  Some of what I did find has already been reported in the presentations previously given. It was interesting to find that she published poems in Bread of Life, Daily Devotionals.  It is believed that her work is written about personal experiences.   I would like to focus on the year of her birth, 1950.  In the poem, she makes reference to 1983.  In that year she would have been 33 years old.  The subject of this poem is a parent of a small child in the year of 1983.   This poem could very well be about personal experience.

 

Objectives Covered:

Objective 3a:  African American Alternative:  “The Dream” emphasizes the setbacks and the need to rise again.  The poem covers past struggles that have been fought to overcome racial discrimination.

Objective 7:  Representations of the Dominate Culture:  Contains a chart with differences between cultures.  Listed was white and black.  The poem discusses the cultural difference between white skin color and black skin color.

Objective 4:  Assimilation:  The debate over whether or not to assimilate to the dominate culture.  The poem makes reference to the ultimate assimilation; changing one’s skin color.

Discussion:

With the first reading of the poem I thought it seemed to be relating typical conflicts between racial groups.  On closer look, I think that although the mother’s fears about racial discrimination are legitimate, in the eyes of a small child, the issue is more basic.  She is concerned with the color of her skin compared to the color of her friend rather than with the stereotypes usually associated with culture in relation to color.  She has been told that her skin is ugly because it is black and she is mad because God did not make her white.  However, the young child is over her emotional trauma when she remembers she can make him mad and his face will turn red which is uglier than black in her opinion.

Questions:

1.      What other interpretations do you suggest for this poem?

2.      What do you think is the significance of the following stanza?

Her eyes opened and looked in mine,

As if she heard my fear

Class discussion:

In response to Dianna’s first question about interpretation of the child’s reaction to her mother’s anguish:

 

Dominic:          To a child color is a description.  His child asks him, “Daddy, why do they say I’m black?  I’m brown.”

 

Student 2:       The situation circles around; the child becomes the mother.  The older generation is passing their fear to the younger generation.

 

Student 3:            The child is upset.  Children, in reaction to their parent’s

becoming upset, try to make it easier.

 

Student 4:        Talking about color has made the mom scared.

 

Jerri:               When the child asks, “Why Didn’t god make me white? She is expressing she is not accepted because of how she looks on the outside.  This kind of hurt cannot be make better with a bandaid-the child is scarred, hurt on the inside.  Eyes are open, children switch roles (with the parent).  When the child puts her hands on her hips, she gains strength.  Being told it’s ok to be different made the (other) child’s (taunting) insignificant.

 

White:             The child reinterprets the situation.  The mom sees the story in the context of history.  The child has a different take.  The child is in a new reality.  The (class) interpretation took me into a new reality.  The advantage (to this dialogue?) is that it is not only about minority culture but also about the dominant culture.

                        Black is not always black.  White is not always white.  An African-American lecturer referred to white people as pink.  The response was  “Yes, we’re not white.”  In The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano refers to the “red faces” of the white man.

 

In response to Dianna’s second question about the “words pasted in the air”:

                        Student 6: (The mother’s) words are not enough.  Words are pasted in the air like bandaids.