The Alienation of the Black Girl
Alienation comes in different forms, and may come for different reasons. But wherever or however it occurs, it always operates on the notion of distance, necessarily estranging the individual from his/her environment, and vice versa. As the term implies, the process works by making an individual feel that his/her presence in a particular environment is alien or artificial at best, even if this is not necessarily the case, making them feel unwelcome or unnecessary. Alienation need not be caused by overt events like ostracism or excommunication. Rather, alienation can be as subtle as the ideas and assumptions perpetuated within a particular culture. This paper argues that in Smith’s poem, What it’s Like to be …show more content…
The complete title is What it’s Like to be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t), which expresses two different ideas, understood in common parlance as of unequal importance. Whereas the “main title” hints at the poem’s mere expression of the cultural experiences of a black girl, the words in the parentheses—which hints at the subtitles’ supplementary nature—act as a subtext for the main idea and creates a distance between the persona and the reader, i.e. if the reader is not a black girl. But the odd juxtaposition of the two phrases only serves to highlight the words in parentheses, making them more conspicuous to the eye and seem more important to the overall meaning of the poem. Now, in the reader’s imagination, the poem ceases to be a mere exercise of cultural expression, but instead an exercise of cultural distinction. Unlike traditional poems that invite empathy between the reader and the persona, Smith’s poem prevents access to the culture in question unless the reader is part of said …show more content…
Black people do more than just live in a society by whites and for whites, they do so by living with stereotypes associated with their own culture, highlighting the fact of their difference. From notions like “black guys in hoodies” to preference for kool-aid and fried chicken, black people are expected by society to act and live according to a certain way, which often acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially for those who are of a younger disposition (Bolaffi et al., 2003, p. 303). The succeeding lines of the poem describe what life was like for the persona, detailing specific struggles she had as a black girl going through puberty. The lines “it’s finding a space between your legs, a disturbance at your chest, and not knowing what to do with the whistles” are interesting, because they are pertinent to cultural expectations of black sexuality. Staples (2006, p. 26) notes how black people have been historically and are presently sexualized in popular imagination, so that “all Black women are perceived as sensuous, permissive, and promiscuous [while] the men are animalistic, lust after white women, frequently desire sex, are unfaithful in their marriages, and do not believe in the institution of marriage.” The lines in question depict the persona finding herself in a situation where her culture—represented here by her
Alienation comes in different forms, and may come for different reasons. But wherever or however it occurs, it always operates on the notion of distance, necessarily estranging the individual from his/her environment, and vice versa. As the term implies, the process works by making an individual feel that his/her presence in a particular environment is alien or artificial at best, even if this is not necessarily the case, making them feel unwelcome or unnecessary. Alienation need not be caused by overt events like ostracism or excommunication. Rather, alienation can be as subtle as the ideas and assumptions perpetuated within a particular culture. This paper argues that in Smith’s poem, What it’s Like to be …show more content…
The complete title is What it’s Like to be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t), which expresses two different ideas, understood in common parlance as of unequal importance. Whereas the “main title” hints at the poem’s mere expression of the cultural experiences of a black girl, the words in the parentheses—which hints at the subtitles’ supplementary nature—act as a subtext for the main idea and creates a distance between the persona and the reader, i.e. if the reader is not a black girl. But the odd juxtaposition of the two phrases only serves to highlight the words in parentheses, making them more conspicuous to the eye and seem more important to the overall meaning of the poem. Now, in the reader’s imagination, the poem ceases to be a mere exercise of cultural expression, but instead an exercise of cultural distinction. Unlike traditional poems that invite empathy between the reader and the persona, Smith’s poem prevents access to the culture in question unless the reader is part of said …show more content…
Black people do more than just live in a society by whites and for whites, they do so by living with stereotypes associated with their own culture, highlighting the fact of their difference. From notions like “black guys in hoodies” to preference for kool-aid and fried chicken, black people are expected by society to act and live according to a certain way, which often acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially for those who are of a younger disposition (Bolaffi et al., 2003, p. 303). The succeeding lines of the poem describe what life was like for the persona, detailing specific struggles she had as a black girl going through puberty. The lines “it’s finding a space between your legs, a disturbance at your chest, and not knowing what to do with the whistles” are interesting, because they are pertinent to cultural expectations of black sexuality. Staples (2006, p. 26) notes how black people have been historically and are presently sexualized in popular imagination, so that “all Black women are perceived as sensuous, permissive, and promiscuous [while] the men are animalistic, lust after white women, frequently desire sex, are unfaithful in their marriages, and do not believe in the institution of marriage.” The lines in question depict the persona finding herself in a situation where her culture—represented here by her