After I'd completed my "Southern Fictions" sonnet sequence back in the late 90's, I wrote what I considered a coda. It grew out of the memory of my grandmother telling me when, as a young girl, I asked her whether I was Democrat or Republican. I think we might have been watching the t.v. they had just bought, and a news program was on. I knew nothing of the two parties then. By now I know too much. And after watching the SC Republican primary's race-baiting and seeing how successful it was, I know that little has changed. I never attached this coda to the sonnets, but after Gingrich's win, thanks, let's face it, to his race-baiting, I feel like sharing it. This is the first time I've shown it to anyone but my husband.
Democrat or Republican,
I asked in childhood, can
you tell me which I am ?
A Democrat, she slammed
the word down hard. And don’t
you ever dare forget it.
And I haven’t. I regret to mention
that the most of my relations
have. Blame civil rights.
Afraid to do the right
thing, they turned right
and lost the moral high
ground. Elected bigots
and were proud of it.
3 comments:
Gingrich knows how to manipulate the south with words and surreptitious intended duplicitous usage.
Unfortunately, people are presently enveloped in fear, economically and personal religious convictions both nationally and globally.
Imagine my concerns of the whispers bigotry and racism 'still' enmeshed in the fiber of our society being a legal naturalized citizen born in Mexico. Wake up America
Lord, yes. Bigotry is alive and well -- something of a shape shifter.
Allow me to reiterate:
Gingrich knows how to manipulate the 'old' South with the choice of words used in a surreptitious and duplicitous manner.
Unfortunately, people are presently feeling enveloped in fear based on their economic condition, their personal religious convictions being, seemingly, threatened both in a nationalistic and global view.
Imagine my concerns of the loud whispers (oximoron not intended) of bigotry and racism being of hispanic background, born in Mexico, legally naturalized citizen, that still is enmeshed in the very fiber of this American society.
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