deepundergroundpoetry.com

Piano Lesson

our language is infused with racism
concepts of "dark", "black", "shadow"
�carry negative connotations
ominous portents
�
�unfortuantely,
such negative imagery
�spills over lines of discipline
music students are bombarded
�by subliminimal cues
of lighter supremecy
�and shady inferiority

the ivory keys
�are known as "Natural" notes
in our society
�"Natural" holds overwhelmingly positive meaning
customary, indigenous, whole, reasonable,
LEGITIMATE, NORMAL, ESSENTIAL.......
�it suggests organic purity,
of-this-earth wholisticity

the ebony keys
�are raised,
they cast shadows
�each carry two names
already, this hints at
�duplicity

�the first name for
black notes is "Sharp"
�pointy, pronged, prickly,
thorny, stinging,
�they are dangerous,
they cut like knives

�the second moniker
for the onyx keys is "flat"
�dreary, dull, lifeless,
callous, cold, lower, spiritless,
�drab, dull, boring, insipid,
a car with a "flat"
�will take you nowhere
�
�Historians of Western Music
can easily
�explain the evolution
of the piano keyboard,
the origins of musical terms
�they may even be able
to show that their
conotative links to racism
�are mere coincidence

�how is it that within the
context of the English language,
�coincidence,
in deference to race,
�always seems to be rigged
the same unequal way?
�
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