Blond White Women

By:

Patricia Smith

                                                                                        

           

Patricia Smith is an African American author who writes both poems and novels. She is the author of Close to Death, Big Towns , Big Talk and Life According to Motown.[1] Patricia was born in Chicago , Illinois and got her first job as a journalist for The Chicago Sun Times. The poems that Patricia writes are known as "slam" poetry. Slam poetry is known for its lyrics as well as performance.

 

 

Stages:

This poem covers stages all five stages of the immigrant narrative.

Stage 1: Author has been forged into the dominant culture's way of thinking of beauty.

Stage 2: Author enters a new world by realizing her own beauty.

Stage 3: Author realizes that she has been seeking acceptance and love from outsiders, instead of her own family and more importantly herself.

Stage 4: Her assimilation was not voluntary; she was not an immigrant because her placement here was not by choice.

Stage 5: During the poem the author realizes her own beauty and clings to her ethnicity.

Summary:

This poem is Patricia's reality growing up as a minority in America . During her childhood years everything depicted as beautiful was dominated by Caucasions, the dominant culture. In her mind to be white was to beautiful and she longed to be beautiful; she was just the wrong skin color. She finally realizes during her early years that she too, is beautiful and she is black.

Questions:

1. Is this type of thinking still taking place today?
2. In what ways are these views still affecting society?