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Poet: Carl Sandburg
Poem: 43.
Nigger
Volume: Chicago Poems
- Chicago Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1912
Comment 48 of 48, added on March 11th, 2008 at 2:12 PM.
i agree with comment #39 its a bad word used in a very bad way hes so racist
abby
Comment 47 of 48, added on February 7th, 2008 at 8:39 PM.
some of you all really don't understand this poem. to you who said "I love niggers i am one myself". what?!? you have no idea what that word means.
were you ever shackled and chained?
did you ever cry tears of dust wishing to go back to your motherland?
have you ever tried to keep the little of your mind that managed to escape the demons of slavery?
Where you ever beaten and whipped?
Did you ever battle between running away from the slaveholder the only life you know of depended on or finally claiming your freedom and humanity?
Man, you never went through anything like that! Ever! That's what a real N*GGER is! People were lynched, assainated, repressed for us not go back to being true N*GGERS. And even after slavery ended African Americans still fought for us not to be called that anymore. But here you are throwing all that back in their faces by saying "I AM A N*GGER!"
It's like saying to them "what you did was all in vain. i don't mind being called a ignorant angry animal-like creature. i'll go as far as calling myself that."
IT MAKES NO SENSE.
But I have to be honest and say the one thing that I find worthy in n*ggers as described in sandburg is the STRENGTH in them that left behind such a timeless resounding legacy. I appreciate that and I know it was the only thing in a n*gger that passed on the majority of the black race we see today.
Renisha from United States
Comment 46 of 48, added on May 12th, 2007 at 4:36 PM.
Not to begin or continue a discussion on appellation or nomenclature, I am impelled to say this.
I subscribe with alacrity to Sartre's "if you label me you negate me." Something about the mind. When the labels go on the analysis goes off. Look at me. Study my manifestations. Watch what I do.
On the other hand, especially if you are in cahoots with paragraph one this applies. You can call me anything. Just don't call me late for supper.
Personally, I like the term nigger. I still see it as a naturally linguistic pattern of slang progression.
It ain't what you say, it is how you say it.
As a child in the south I grew up with black kids. I discuss this in my poem "Nonconnah Yards". Later on I found I was not really caucasian. I was half cherokee. But, one of my earliest questions about things was this. What is wrong with my family that none of us has any color. This question preceded by many years the normal question children have of "where do babies come from?"
Some expressions just sound so pleasant. As I grew, I noticed a tremendous respect for mother among black people I knew. I also became aware of a phrase I often heard that was used to address one's mother. It sounded so pleasant.
Eventually I got around to wondering what words the phrase I heard contained and what they meant. I couldn't untangle it. I did not want to embarrass anyone, me or my friends. Also I reckoned that I should be able to figure it out.
The phrase sounded like "muh deah". And it was. And it was so simply beautiful I am still many years later enchanted by it. "Mother Dear." What a beautiful, respectful phrase for mom. And I never heard a black person add mother in any other way in the US.
Why do I mention it? Well, it could be the only phrase I can think of that cannot be expressed in a negative way. That's all.
Thinking back, I would have been pleased to have named my poem, "Nonconnah Yards Nigger" but would I have run into the same kind of kneejerk reactions that Carl Sandburg has? I would not enjoy being hurt that way.
Thank you. Happy Mother's Day. May 13, 2007.
metaphormet from United States
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Comments
i agree with comment #39 its a bad word used in a very bad way hes so racist
abby