Renee, who self identifies as multiracial and names her racial identity as "Irish, Dominican, Black, and Cherokee Indian," told me that she composed her "First I Said" poem as a way to reflect the multiple messages she has received about this identity. She writes: First they said I was skinny Then they said I was a nice size Then they asked me what I was mixed with Then I said many things. Then they said, Oh, that's why your hair is like that. Then I said, don’t worry on how my hair is, but make sure your hair is nice. Then they said I got a big head. And then I said look at yours. People have a lot to say about other people but really they need to worry about themselves. Renee calls attention to and resists discourses related to body size, skin color, and hair that surround her as a multiracial young woman. In her first response to her unwelcome questioner she is direct in choosing to reply "many things." Her response seems to call attention to the audacity of the question and her ability to reveal only as much as she wants to and to reveal it with a slight sense of sarcasm. In her second and third responses, she responds even more directly to the persona behind the questions, inserting the second person voice to critique and advise the questioner. Joy's poem is even more direct. In her reading of it to the class, she not only read the lines she had written in her journal but also added direct and playfully indignant commentary to members of the class (represented in parentheses below): First they said I was too short, (that's when I was younger) Then they said I was too tall (that's now) Then they said I was too mean (that was back then) Then they said I was too nice (I'm not nice no more) Then they said I talked too much Then they said I talked too little (I didn't ask you) Then they said I was too weak Then they said I was too strong Then they talked about it Then after that I got tired of it Then I smacked all of them in the face. I'm me, and I'm not changing for none of y'all. Joy's reading of her poem with the parenthetical commentary called even further attention to her authorial presence and confidence. When voicing the parenthetical additions, she looked directly at members of the class as if to assert that she was not only the self possessed writer of the poem but also that she was asserting control in how her writing would be understood by her audience. The students used compelling rhetorical devices in these poems to establish a sense of self and to establish an audience. Emulating Jordan's strategic use of a large and generic "they" to hold multiple messengers, and emulating. Jordan's strategic use of "too" to accentuate this messenger’s value laden and judgmental descriptions, the students created a textual space to call attention to and indict a wide range of harmful perceptions, from skin color and hair to voice and comportment. As critical readers of Jordan's poem and of the world around them, and as living authors, the students talked back to and resisted harmful images and assumptions.
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