English 2100 x 81: Fall 2020

Author: Jose Luna

“Everything is in the language that we do NOT use”

If Long Soldier, hypothetically, said “Everything is in the language we do NOT use” that would imply that the most significant information is what is being left out. She would, therefore, say that we need to figure out what is being left out and why. This idea forms the poem, “The President Has Never Said The Word ‘Black’” written by Morgan Parker.

Morgan’s poem addresses race while intentionally keeping the word black out. Instead of saying black, she decides to leave a space or forget the word entirely. She says, “The pursuit of happiness is guaranteed for all fellow Americans”, when it should be “the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed for all fellow black Americans”. She also says “The president is all like five on the bleep hand side”, when instead of bleep, it should say black. This poem was written during the presidency of Barack Obama, and she most likely felt that the president was keeping the word “black” and racial issues of the United States, outside of the media and the world. She most likely mentions the last part, “When he opens his mouth a chameleon is inside, starving.” to criticize that when the president opens his mouth, his words change to what he thinks people want to hear, and not what needs to be said.

Morgan Parker wants us, the reader, to feel as if we are being withheld important information and take the information given to us as a grain of salt. President Obama, who is black, has never mentioned the word black and always went around it. There obviously must have been a political strategy as to why he decided not to bring race into conversation. If we do not know we can be easily manipulated. As goes the saying, “Ignorance is bliss” because nothing will ever change, since we are too ignorant to even realize there is a problem.

“38”-by Layli Long Soldier

I thought the poem was very informative and interesting. I remember learning about the Sioux Uprising in my AP US history class, but I never knew the whole story. It was very brief in the textbook only bringing up the fact that settlers were murdered and the natives were relocated to other reservations. After listening to the poem, I now realize the textbook only told a small portion of the story.
I noticed that the poem was read as if she was holding back her sad emotions.
In the beginning of the poem, Layli Long Soldier said “Also, historical events will not be dramatized for an “interesting” read.”. She probably wants to just tell the history of a fellow Native tribe to those who genuinely want to listen, not just because they think they’ll get to hear a dramatic, Hollywood-esque story. She says her poems slowly, so it’s easy for her readers to understand. She repeated and italicized some parts in her poem, probably to show emphasis on specific parts. Such as her emphasis on the word hanged as opposed to hung, since hanged is the correct way to describe what happened to the 38 men.
I’ve read many poems and this poem is very different from most. This poem tells the story of the Dakota tribe people, it shows how certain actions from both parties, the Dakota tribe and the American government led to the Sioux uprising. It shows how the Dakota people could only accept their exile, as there was nothing else they could do. They know what happened and they hold their memorial to this day. From this poem I didn’t learn if the current Dakota tribe holds anger towards the U.S or if the Dakota from back then were angry or just wanted to survive. The only bit that tells me the Dakota from the past held some resentment was the part where she mentioned the grass as there was the ironic ending for Andrew Myrick.
The phrase “everything is in the language we use” holds a lot of meaning in this poem “38”. The phrase was first used after she gave a sort of textbook description of what happened to the Dakota tribe land. She said it was “ceded” and “allotted”, when in reality it was taken and was conveniently allotted. The language she first uses makes the land theft seem like a minor detail, something that the reader may not think too heavily about. When she uses the language she uses after it tells the true story of what happens. Long Soldier wants us to understand the true meaning of the words we’ve been hearing. Some words that have similar meanings can be used to sugar coat events that happened, so they do not sound as bad. Long Soldier wants us to look past and understand what truly happened in the historical event.