The poem “The President Has Never Said the Word ‘Black’” touches base on language used by President Obama during a speech about the death of a young black boy. He refers to this person as a “brother” yet never says the word black. It seems that although he himself is an African American man, saying this word bothers him and makes him uncomfortable. When the Long Soldier wrote, “everything is in the language we do NOT use”, it is what Obama did by not using the word black, and instead shying away from it. The language that is not used can imply a negative feeling towards it, such as embarrassment or hate. Parker even leaves blanks in between words where the word black should have gone if Obama had not been afraid to use the word. This signifies how certain words in our language have negative attributions leading to Obama avoiding the word black and molding his speech to fit in with certain standards in society.
Your summary and analyzation helped me understand the poem a bit more. When I first read the poem and the article, I wasn’t sure what the poem was referring to but now that I do, it definitely proves that meaning is in the language and words that we do not use. It’s disappointing to me how Obama, as an African American himself, felt the need to shy away from using the word ‘black’ in his speech.
I agree with you and I feel like that word is very strong and Obama chose not to say it because maybe one person won’t take it the wrong but someone else will. He chose to respect what everyone might think and simply avoid the word, I agree with why he did that and I actually really like that it shows how much he really cares about his people.
I agree with you 100%. By him not using the word black, it leaves us to wonder why that is. It is like using the word brings shame or he just does not want to acknowledge it. Very strange in my opinion.