In The President Has Never Said the Word ‘Black’, the author uses rhetorical diction, or lack there of, to illustrate the lack of attention towards a troubling issue in the US. Rather than going into detail in the poem about who the president is and his specific wrongdoing, she leaves it out and allows the reader to imagine these things, thus allowing the reader to have their own unique interpretation fo the poem. By doing so, the author is mocking the president and portraying her anger toward the president, even more than if she went into detail explaining. The reader truly feels the lack of language as it sweeps them off their feet and address’s the problem at hand, rather than the person not persisting to fix it. She also uses the lack of the word black to emphasize how it feels to be treated like she does not matter. The blank adds emphasize to the statement and makes the reader contemplate about why the president does not use the word. This brilliant tactic is a rhetorical device that allows the reading to feel unique and individualized as it renders the reader thinking without even using as much text. Its interesting when the reading said “The president be like we lost a young boy today”. While writing in her unique style the lack of the word black holds a strong place, even though it is not even written. This incredible writing style address’s the problem while indicating how reader’s feel the impact of a lack of something even more than if it was present.
3 thoughts on “The President Has Never Said the Word ‘Black’”
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I really enjoyed your correlation between the lack of rhetorical diction and the lack of attention to the issues in the US to show the importance of why using proper language is important. I also appreciate the analysis of the use of the blank in her poem and your explanation of what role it plays because I didn’t pick up on that until after I read through the poem multiple times. Overall I think you did a really good job at analyzing the poem especially with how little there is to work with!!
I like how you mentioned how Parker left things up to the reader’s imagination when she would leave certain words out. I also liked how you interpreted the poem. You mentioned that the lack of the word black makes the author angry and makes her feel like she doesn’t matter. I thought that was a really good point to bring up. I also agree that the writer has an incredible writing style to address this problem.
Thank you for explaining this poem, I was a bit confused. I like how you mentioned the author leaving details out and allowing readers to form their own ideas. I think that she was not just speaking up for herself, but also for the black community.