Racism In White Papers, By Martha Collins

In the poem “White Papers [1]” Martha Collins discloses her past, present, and future understanding of racism. Collins use of sound, language, and other literary devices reveal to the reader the process of which the United States has, is, and forever will be going through to amend racism and racial bias. In this poem the speaker travels through her lifetime finding the indirect influences she experienced from childhood to adulthood that resulted in her thoughts on race. The impression that the speaker received through these influences resulted into her believing that racism progressing in a positive direction was not plausible. In the end, Martha Collins reveals that the nation has progressed despite her predictions, and because of this she …show more content…
The speakers continuous unveiling of similarities between herself and her parents is seen when she begins to identify with her parent’s beliefs. This is shown when she repeats the pronoun of a phrase seen in the beginning of the poem into a pronoun that includes herself. Similar to the second stanza of the poem, Collins states in stanza six: “although we rarely although we whispered”. Similar to this at the beginning of the poem in stanza two she states: “But mostly because they rarely spoke of or noticed or even whispered”. In these lines, the difference of pronouns, they and we, reveal that the speaker through time has joined her parents and their views. The similarities to the two lines, which is shown by the repeating words: rarely and whispered, combined with the new pronoun reveals that the speaker is now old enough to identify with the adults and share their views on race. The significance of this identification is that the speaker is now molded into believing in the separation and racial bias that her parents agree with, which is seen at the beginning of the poem. Another important moment of identification between the speaker and her parents, more specifically her father, is seen in stanza six: “I wrote a paper that took the position Yes but not yet”. Provided that the speakers father said the exact phrase “Yes but not yet” in the first stanza, Collins is emphasizing the idea that the speaker is now taking the side of her parents’ belief towards how equality will progress. By saying, “took the position” the speaker is suggesting that she was able to apply her own idea on how the fixing of racism will develop, but due to the influences that have followed her into adulthood, Collins reveals that she was unable to fully believe in the changes that were going to happen in the future. These exhibits of the speaker mimicking her parents’ views is a result of the impressions they bestowed upon her at such a young