More Shocking Revelations About Pm Justin Trudeau Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

More shocking revelations about PM Justin Trudeau
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
Justin Trudeau had donned a blackened face a third time
And he did not know that it was racist to do so
And this is the height of ignorance from the son of a PM
But I myself had asked my husband when I was in graduate school
(For I was, despite my sensitivity, for life in America and Canada had
Made me who had not spared a thought in the direction that I was not blonde and blue eyed
But longed to me very fair like my mother's father
When I came across heroes and heroines who were white,
Conscious that I was different and brown skinned)
Why was it so wrong to do so
For heroines dressed up as men in quite a few instances
As did a man dress as a woman in Georgette Heyer's The Masqueraders;

My husband pointed out that in the bigger picture of things
It is racist and dismisses the fact that non-white people
Have been discriminated against and denied equal rights
In western society as well as other parts of the world;

Google Books reminded me of Uncas in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans
Who blackened his face in the book
And this says, Literary Minstrelsy by E. Simpson, is exclusionary emulation
As defined by James Snead with reference to black face minstrelsy,
The principle where black face and culture are imitated with the power and trappings of black culture
While at the same time, the originators of black culture are segregated and kept at a distance;

And this is why the act itself has come to be frowned upon so much
It hurts me that a man whom I have come to love as kin
For he is the beautiful-in-character-leader of our nation,
Despite being raised in this society, did not know better,
And I say that by apologising and taking responsibility for his thoughtless crudeness
He has redeemed himself;

Please do recall for The Globe and Mail reminded me this morning
That he chose the supposedly weaker side by indirectly criticizing Pres. Trump
Denying Muslims entry into the USA
And asking his non-white female members of the Senate
To go back where they came from
Didn't we love Justin Trudeau then?

I say this to you, dear reader, with pride in my school teachers and professors
Who taught us very good values
That we all revelled in having a diverse group of friends
And looking at the back of the Sept 16th,2019 issue of The New Yorker
Which has a quote by W.B. Yeats I say that this is true of me
And I bring this quote to your attention:
Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.