Tuesday, October 04, 2011

A Repost of Suheir Hammad's Exotic

Here's a repost of Ms. Hammad's Exotic:



Suheir Hammad's Exotic




This poem is my favorite. This one really touched many women of color as we all face everyday sexualized racism, whether from family, work, school, the general public, and the ever-present mass media in one form or another.



exotic


by suheir hammad










don't wanna be your exotic


some delicate fragile colorful bird


imprisoned caged


in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings


don't wanna be your exotic


women everywhere are just like me


some taller darker nicer than me


but like me but just the same


women everywhere carry my nose on their faces


my name on their spirits


don't wanna


don't seduce yourself with


my otherness my hair


wasn't put on top of my head to entice


you into some mysterious black voodoo


the beat of my lashes against each other


ain't some dark desert beat


it's just a blink


get over it


don't wanna be your exotic


your lovin of my beauty ain't more than


funky fornication plain pink perversion


in fact nasty necrophilia


cause my beauty is dead to you


I am dead to you


not your


harem girl geisha doll banana picker


pom pom girl pum pum shorts coffee maker


town whore belly dancer private dancer


la malinche venus hottentot laundry girl


your immaculate vessel emasculating princess


don't wanna be


your erotic


not your exotic

Here's her video of Suheir's "Exotic" at Youtube:






Ms. Hammad's poem is still relevant today.  As you see from the photos, past and present, women of color are still fetishized and exoticized in mainstream popular culture, media, and politics.  The images comes from various Disney films, pop music videos, and paintings from the 19th century onwards.  They show the various ways women of Color are portrayed in film and in culture in general.  Those images do have a big impact on how people view us, whether they give us respect or contempt.  Love, or lust/fetish that has to be hidden from public view.  Public policies whether to help women of Color or to marginalize, as in debates on immigration, feminism, etc.
 
What are your thoughts about the poem and the views it expressed?

2 comments:

Julian Real said...

I think this is a tremendously powerful poem, expressing so much that men and whites need to hear and comprehend to the depths of our souls and societies.

La Reyna said...

Julian Real,

Thank you so much for commenting. Men and whites do need to hear what people of Color has to say in regards to how the world views and treats you. Unfortunately, those men and whites dismiss anything that is not to their experience more often than not.

Suheir Hammad's poetry needs to be spread to all peoples throughout the world so people can make constructive change in the white male supremacist society.

La Reyna

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails