Gregory Padlo Essay

No one wants to be considered a slave, not valued or cared for by others in this world, or even being recognized as just a cargo number rather than by his or her own name given to them when birth. Slavery and black racial subordination go hand in hand. Gregory Pardlo’s poem suggests that black’s racial subordination was a product of slavery that came at a time when slave masters had difficulty with mental and physical differences. In his classic poem, Pardlo notes the evident differences between whites and blacks and its social stereotypes associated with the man. Gregory Pardlo’s poem is a well thought out list of the challenges and the endurance of slavery.
Pardlo’s poem has significant concerns about the many challenges of slavery and how …show more content…
Pardlo states: “I was born still and superstitious; I bore an unexpected burden.” Pardlo stresses the burden of being a slave by reflecting the difficulties of life as a slave. Through his vivid description, Pardlo’s succeeds in painting a picture of his race as a lifetime obstacle in our society that values race more than anything else. Pardlo’s poem offers insight into the mind of a slave. Referring to the intense meaning, he seeks to explain the concept of being a slave with the line, “I gave rise to suspicion.” Pardlo refers to the horrible life that slaves had to endure for over two hundred years. Implanted in this sentence is Pardlo’s outright rejection of the concept of slavery and its history of symbolizing separation by referring to the individual’s background. Pardlo’s poem discusses the uneasy truth about the society of Caucasian and African Americans. Pardlo’s views on the lopsided nature of the society’s appreciation of the two races is captured in the line where he states “I was born abandoned outdoor in the heat shaped air.” This line states the fears of being an African American male and the cycle of terror and insecurities that came with