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Sensitive ‘Colored’ Poet Guy Standing in Front of Whole Foods Market

race poem

When you are soliciting in front of Whole Foods Market in Westwood, California, you may be hoping that your ‘case,’ when thrown on the mercy of the upscale “health nuts,” will be tried and judged—and that you will win and be rewarded—at least with a brand-new, synthetic Yoga mat. So this late-twenties, early-thirties, balding colored guy with an English accent who has this poem that is tired of racism (shown above) and a few colored prints of his visual art work, unwittingly entered into the Court of Law in the rasx() context. Here, being nonjudgmental is being blind. So let’s see. This Judge passes the sentence—more to come:

His poem about racism asked questions about racism—questions that are by now several hundred years old. He is introducing this artificial subject of racism from the ground floor of the rank edifice to “reach” a “wider audience” I assume. You know, to kind of—like—you know—sort of—ask questions makes you look like you don’t know anything. Because to know one or two things makes you look like a know-it-all—and no pink-blooded American wants to be a know-it-all (my extremism ignores the God-talks-to-me loophole that our current President uses with liberty and freedom). Anyway, this guy—I guess he’s from England—reminds me of a Basquiat chasing an Andy Warhol—or a young Picasso standing outside of the arena of a bullfight vending postcard-sized prints. You know, it’s the genius street-urchin tale, trying to Oliver-twist itself into a Horatio Algiers Story—and we often forget that all that shit was fiction. It is this line that stands out:

Was it not last century’s lesson?

This question is based on the assumption that everyone in the race-world is learning. That a school is in session for a century—and, at century’s end, we all emerge from our compartments, sit down and see who all gets a degree for this education. The poem words that follow are dominated by abstract nouns that sit there like vocabulary words meant to decorate some relatively wealthy imperial servant’s parlor—for we know why the caged bird sings… In the rasx() context, the race-world is, by definition, materialistic so when there is any racist learnin’ going on it should be about the administration, processing and manipulation of materials. Any poet trying to be tired of racism should know this by now and this knowledge informs the poem and takes it elsewhere—unless you are tying to write a poem that can be hung over the sofa… excuse me then for minding your business….

The lesson for me is that it is incorrect to attack racists when the attacker is himself is filled with the Babylonian ‘soul’ of his target. The attacker should not envy the oppressor and arrange the mind in the manner of the oppressor. The plantation of the mind must be razed down so poem words like the one’s shown above don’t come so easily. This Blog is of the native stone that the builders refuse because these builders use imported concrete. Y’all keep it real on your real estate. In the kinté space, some “race-related” poems are: “Spellbound,” “New Gods,” “we must learn to accept the implied without anger,” “Jungle Safari,” “The American Dream” and many more…

Comments

dbc, 2006-04-12 02:46:21

Considering that I'm about to move to Dallas, a city that apparently has many Whole Foods stores, the comment above is of interest to me, even if it is but a tangent of the original entry. I do not buy organic foods exclusively; the two organic/natural stores in town are too far away, and only one has a truly broad selection. I was/am looking forward to being closer to an organic market, but not to the prices that WF is (in)famous for. I find it interesting, but not surprising that upscale (often white) health nuts are the only ones with easy access to healthy foods. Membership in the progressive elite hath its privileges.

rasx()