Warning There Is A Demand For Change Essays - Nigger, Profanity

Warning: There Is A Demand For Change Caruthers 1 Warning: There is a Demand for Change The sixties, was a period of growth and development for many Black writers and artist. It was a period that allowed them to come together, and by doing so they formed what is known as the Black Arts Movement . This movement allowed the artist to free their minds, and to focus their attention on the struggles of their time. The Black Arts Movements focus was on Black people, the art had to have a purpose and its purpose had to be for the Black people*http://www.yahoo.com*. Poet, Haki R. Madhubuti, was one of the many artist involved in the Black Arts Movement. Like; Larry Neal, who felt that the artist is responsible to his people, to his community, and must give up the sense of Americanized (white) idea of the individual experience (Neal, Visions of a Liberated Future p.32). Madhubuti also felt that blacks must move away from this white way of thinking. His poem entitled, a poem to compliment other poems, is a perfect example of how he felt that Blacks must change and Caruthers 2 move away from the negative influences of Whites. In fact, the theme of the poem is all about changing your way of thinking. Throughout the poem the theme change is broken down into stages. The first stage is about changing for the better, the second stage is about the wrong changes that Blacks make, and the final stage is about changing Black Americas mentality. The first stage that is addressed is about changing for the better. The focus is on telling Blacks to change the course that their life is taking. He says, life if u were a match I wd light u into something beautiful. change. change. for the better into a realreal together thing. change, from a make believe nothing on cornmeal and water.change(stanza 1-6). The first line is about making something of your life, and in order to this some changes must be made. The speaker addresses two changes that will better Blacks. The first is to really get their lives together, in other words, for them to gain some form of stability in their lives. The second change is they must remove the false ideas that have been placed in their heads. He addresses one of the ideas as the make believe nothing, in other words, the false idea that Blacks are nothing. Caruthers 3 The next stage in the poem is about the wrong changes that Blacks make. These changes are brought on by the negative ideas of white America. In Madhubutis work he is particularly acute about charting the growth of Blackness within the individual consciousness, and charting a way out of whiteness that allows for strength and self-determination for Black Americans. He wanted to eliminate the lingering white influence on his people ( Mosher 13). During the sixties many groups with different political views were formed by White America, and these groups had influence on the mindset of many Blacks during this time. The speaker touches on these negative influences by these groups when he says, Saw a nigger hippy, him wanted to be different. Changed. Saw a nigger liberal, him wanted to be different. Changed. Saw a nigger conservative, him wanted to be different. Changed (lines 8-10). The speaker then turns around and says, niggers dont u know u are different. Change (line 11). He is lettin g those Blacks that feel the need to be different know they dont have to confine themselves to these white groups in order to be different because by being black they already are. The next, negative change that the speaker addresses he calls a double change . He states, a double change. nigger Caruthers 4 wanted a double zero in front of his name; a license to kill, niggers are licensed to be killed. Change. a negro: something that pigs eat ( lines 12-13). The false idea here, is wanting to emulate these James Bond type figures, for example, detectives and police officers. When in reality they need to realize that these men that are suppose to protect and serve