Color Enforcement

[busker]

Interesting:  tracking with closeups, as it were.  Would the same advice apply to writing anti-racist poetry (which, spoiler, was the intent here)?

Many white South Africans today feel disenfranchised by the affirmative action policies that are meant to redress the historical imbalance in wealth between the races. In the long run, those policies will lead to a more equitable society, and are for the greater good. But the collateral damage from that today are the little people, the grist for the mill, the fodder for the cannon of progress. 

And so there is enough material here to write poetry empathetic to the Boer (who after all, have been living in Africa for 400 years as a 'white tribe' and have no surviving ties to Europe) and arguing for them to be admitted into America. That could be anti racist poetry. And I suppose it’s more easily done by focusing on one person’s tale of woe.


But saying that 'Boers could get in here more easily if they were black' is ridiculous, because we know that America doesn't have a bleeding heart for black and brown and yellow refugees like it did for their white equivalents a hundred and fifty years ago. That can't make for anti-racist poetry because the central premise is delusional. It could make for good racist poetry, if done right. So take it whichever way you will.

To broach a broader topic: poetry is about showing because it appeals to our emotions. An argument, consisting of a proposition and its defence, appeals to the head. Arguments don’t make for good poetry. They may find place in an essay. But you know that.