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White Comedy by Benjamin Zephaniah

10/6/2008 12:04:45 PM
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Benjamin Zephaniah
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White Comedy
 
  I waz whitemailed
By a white witch,
Wid white magic
An white lies,
Branded by a white sheep
I slaved as a whitesmith
Near a white spot
Where I suffered whitewater fever.
Whitelisted as a whiteleg
I waz in de white book
As a master of white art,
It waz like white death.

People called me white jack
Some hailed me as a white wog,
So I joined de white watch
Trained as a white guard
Lived off the white economy.
Caught and beaten by de whiteshirts
I waz condemned to a white mass,
Don't worry,
I shall be writing to de Black House.

Benjamin Zephaniah


Read poems about / on: magic, house, people, death

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Andrew James (9/29/2008 2:44:00 AM)
drivel... evidence that english culture is falling into a cesspool of illiterate dunderheads... zephaniah's ouvre is empty headed drivel... he has little to say other than preachy diatribes imparted with trivial insights slapped together for mass consumption and appeal...

sadly i agree with his politics and share concern for the realities facing the non-white world... i also respect his passion for his subject... that does not make him a good poet or me a good politician...
Agustina B (7/27/2005 3:14:00 PM)
An ABSOLUTELY amazing poem that highlights how racist ideology is immersed in language and makes the reader see his point by playing with language. Zephaniah achieves his goal of both criticizing the dominant standard and at the same time empowering the languages spoken by those who once were colonized by the empire and one of its most efficient ways of depriving the colonized of their culture and nature: imposition of language. A masterpiece by one of the best poets of our times.

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10/6/2008 12:04:46 PM. You Are Here: White Comedy by Benjamin Zephaniah

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