deepundergroundpoetry.com
Where mulattoes come from?
Originally written after watching tv documentary about mixed race relationships and effects in producing coloured populations in a number of contexts. No offence intended.
Up-and-down,
Black-on-white,
Produce brown
Children...right?
White-on-black,
Up-and-down:
Same odds stack -
Children brown!
Within wedlock,
or without,
Results are same,
do not doubt!
Up-and-down,
Black-on-white,
Produce brown
Children...right?
White-on-black,
Up-and-down:
Same odds stack -
Children brown!
Within wedlock,
or without,
Results are same,
do not doubt!
Published 25th Mar 2016
| Edited 17th Apr 2022
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26th Mar 2016 3:47am
a question I have often pondered - President Obama is half-black and half-white... why do we consider him to be "black" if he is exactly half and half...?
which is why I call into question the oxymoronic stupidity of "white supremacy," if "white" was "supreme," he'd be just another "white" guy...
(as for his being "African-American" that holds no dispute, his dad was from Africa and his mom from America...)
"mulatto" is kind of a uncomfortable term - has me thinking I'm in a top hat and waistcoat walking the streets of New Orleans in 1875...
But I love the poem and the questions it raises...
geoff
which is why I call into question the oxymoronic stupidity of "white supremacy," if "white" was "supreme," he'd be just another "white" guy...
(as for his being "African-American" that holds no dispute, his dad was from Africa and his mom from America...)
"mulatto" is kind of a uncomfortable term - has me thinking I'm in a top hat and waistcoat walking the streets of New Orleans in 1875...
But I love the poem and the questions it raises...
geoff
26th Mar 2016 9:32pm
I might have a go at finding a different term for 'mulattoes'. That was the original word when I first wrote (but never published) this poem. I could try 'mixed race' as a gentler term but I was particularly thinking more of people of African-European ancestry (mulatto would not apply surely to people of Asiatic descent?).
The point of my poem was to debunk misconceptions, notably that mixed race people are all the result of illegitimate liaisons when in fact a good many are descendants of mixed marriages - although that has not stopped some of the latter being mindlessly called 'black bastards'.
The point of my poem was to debunk misconceptions, notably that mixed race people are all the result of illegitimate liaisons when in fact a good many are descendants of mixed marriages - although that has not stopped some of the latter being mindlessly called 'black bastards'.
27th Mar 2016 2:48pm
I like the term mulatto,because of it's discomfort... It immediately raises the question of race... and how it's discussed...
Here in the states, we seem to want to sanitize our racist path by putting it in more comfortable terms...
So it's good that you used it...
and it does set the terms of the poem...
good write...
geoff
Here in the states, we seem to want to sanitize our racist path by putting it in more comfortable terms...
So it's good that you used it...
and it does set the terms of the poem...
good write...
geoff
