Analysis Of Poem About Police Violence By June Jordan

June Jordan: Poem about Police Violence June Jordan came of age as a poet in the black arts era when the voices of female writers were biginning to be heard. Raised in the ghettos of Harlem, her work reflects her many different identities. “I am black and I am female and I am a mother and I am a bisexual and I am a nationalist and I am an antinationalist. And I mean to be full and freely all that I am.” She used her poetry for awareness of women, the poor, as well as African Americans. Her writing, Poem about Police Violence, was a response to the “accidental” death of a black man in police custody. Jordan tries in this poem to eliminate the growing number of police violence. This work of literature drew my interest as it still relevant today with the recent police brutalities. …show more content…
Everytime they kill a black man then we kill a cop.” She may be trying to show throughout the poem how people demean black men by calling them boy. Demeaning and demoralizing black men have occurred so frequently, their lives are viewed as less valuable than white people, and police brutality is easily justified as accidental. The author’s question of “you think the accident rate would lower subsequently” is a question of settling scores. This question of revenge seems to me to be a common theme of the Black Arts Movement. This movement featured the Black Power themes of racial separatism and racial retaliation. Many authors used their writings to incite their readers into military states and protests. This period was very revolutionary and often violent at times as many used their anger in