dear white america

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Bidding

There are certain words that Smith uses to expertly remind readers of the ever-present legacy of slavery. One such word is “bid.” Towards the end of the poem, Smith writes, “until then i bid you well. i bid you war, i bid you our lives to gamble with no more” (Lines 34-35). In its first iteration, Smith plays on a familiar phrase to bid someone farewell, as in to say goodbye. In this context, “bid” expresses a greeting or a wish. However, when they repeat it a second time, they imbue this wish with violence; they bid white America war. In its third and final iteration, Smith negates the bid, taking their lives away from white America. In repeating this word and changing the meaning across the three iterations, the words itself begins to break down. Readers are therefore clued into the fact that Smith wishes readers to question the weight of the word. Another clue Smith gives is the word “gamble.” The definition transforms to offering a price. Smith cleverly uses this word to bring about the symbol and motif of auction bidding, which supports their thematic explorations of slavery.

Violence

Violence is a constant motif in “dear white america.” Violence is present in the murdered individuals whom Smith lists by first name, in the God who refuses to offer safety and resurrection for Black America, in the poplar tree and the slave ships, and in the holes left behind by the speaker’s brothers and sisters and their funeral. Violence as a motif demonstrates that violence in various forms often encapsulates the lives of Black people in America and abroad.

Darkness

Darkness is yet another motif that is ever-present in “dear white america,” and it’s in the very first line that Smith complicates and redefines this darkness. While there might not seem to be any rational or logical association/relationship between darkness and evil, ever since the time of fairytales, humankind has been conditioned to associate the two. Moreover, some early belief systems conflated the two. Manichaeism, for instance, which was founded in third-century Mesopotamia (an area that includes most of modern-day Kuwait and Iraq), stressed a primeval conflict between good and evil that was expressed in light versus dark. Conversely, lightness, and thus whiteness, tends to represent what is “good”; angels, heaven, purity, and cleanliness…the list of associations goes on. But it is white America that Smith criticizes in this poem, and on the other end of that spectrum is that which needs to be saved. In the opening line, Smith writes, “i’ve left Earth in search of darker planets, a solar system revolving too near a black hole” (Lines 1-2). Smith is in search of darkness, in search of somewhere new for his Black community to thrive.