Thank you, Karen Eastland, for hosting Poetry Friday! Please check in with Karen to see what she has in store for us this week.
Several weeks ago on Poetry Friday the Poetry Sisters invited other poets to join them the last Friday of June. The prompt was to write a poem using the imagery of ‘thick woods’ or the word “susurrus.” Susurrus has an interesting sound and reflects its meaning: a whispering or rustling sound.
My mind has been on injustice, so my poem at the end will be about that. Injustice can be subtle, like a susurrus, extreme violence, or in between. As to the cause of the injustice, it’s been studied and called “white racism,” but never accepted by the government or most white Americans.
Of interest to me was Jill Lepore’s article in the New Yorker this week entitled “The Riot Report.” Lepore reviewed all the government commissions and inquiries into race riots since 1917. When riots threatened whites, commissions were frequently appointed so that the fearful public believed the government will do something. Nothing ever changed and the many early commissions all blamed black people for the violence.
Then the Watts riots in L.A. in 1967 was instigated again by horrendous police brutality.
President Johnson commissioned the Kerner Report, charged with the usual quest: find out why and what could be done to prevent riots. The thorough 1700-page report was published in 1968. The Kerner Report became a best seller, along with Valley of the Dolls, telling the stark truth about police violence and economic inequality. It inspired the Washington Post headline: CHIEF BLAME FOR RIOTS PUT ON WHITE RACISM.” No commission had ever blamed white people. It was astounding.
According to Lepore, our President, LBJ, ignored the report. After all, he’d thought he’d solved the race problem with the voting rights Act and 1964 civil rights Acts. That’s why, yet again, even with this report, the government did nothing and here we are fifty years later. Our institutions such as police, schools, and hospitals, the economy are racist. Many politicians pretend to care. After George Floyd’s death last month, Senator Rob Portman called for a Commission to study the problem. He should just read the Kerner Report.
I hope I haven’t been too far off track for a poetry blog. George Floyd’s death was a dramatic crime. But the word “susrussus” brought to mind the idea that prejudice can be subtle, even though to those most affected it might not experience it so. Anyway, I hope that this time around things will move forward, unlike all the other times before. Here’s my poem:
INJUSTICE
It can come by whisper
or by armor-hardened scrum.
It doesn’t ask permission
when it decides to come.
You will find it in the churches
in sermons preachers preach
haunting all our hospitals,
in words some teachers teach.
Oh, the cruelty is obvious
when armies visit streets,
but when it comes by susurrus
it’s tricky to defeat.
© Janice Scully 2020
Thank you, Poetry Sisters, for inviting newbies to share work with you.
Kelly Ramsdell
Andi Sibley
I apologize if I missed anyone. Let me know if I did.
Thank you for this thoughtful poem, Janice. Interesting juxtaposition of injustice and susurrus.
Janice, I so appreciate the history you’ve shared along with your poem. My social studies methods class this summer has been filled with conversation about hard history and why we as a society can’t get this right, so I appreciate even more your poem and the insidiousness of the whispers of racism and how hard they are to defeat. Thanks so much for sharing.
P.S. – I grew up outside of Rochester, so I’m always thrilled to connect with other New Yorkers who know there’s a world outside of the 5 boroughs and Westchester county!
Thank you, Tricia, for your comment. I just had a high school class reunion and we all agreed that we were taught nothing in the sixties about Civil Rights. It’s amazing now as I think of it. Yes there is a divide between Upstate and Downstate. My relatives downstate think Syracuse might as well be Siberia.
I remember that we were excited when Johnson did those deeds, believing that change would happen, but it was a trickle, wasn’t it? Your poem is just right for all the years waiting, waiting, and the whispers stay only that. I’m hoping that today’s shouting will make a difference.
We can’t just move on. November is important.
But the word “susrussus” brought to mind the idea that prejudice can be subtle, even though to those most affected it might not experience it so. That is profound – and the idea of this susurrus whispering between the lines of sermons and lectures in schools is so, SO true – and just deeply depressing.
Thanks for joining our Poetry Peeps this month.
The whispers of injustice that are woven into all of our systems and into our white privilege are the hardest to hear and eliminate.
Thank you for the history lesson. Context is so important.
Janice, I appreciate the information you shared and the way you presented your poem starting with the opening. The undertones and murmurings in between conversations are what prohibits positivity to take hold in many cases.
Bravo! I love learning and teaching…and the background you provided in your post. Thank you for that. There’s so much I never learned and I’m kinda angry about that now. Is it that I didn’t want to know? Or, is it that I wasn’t given an opportunity to learn about things like the Kerner Report? I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do.
Your poem really speaks to these days. It speaks to the insidiousness of injustice. I’m listening to ‘How to be An Antiracist’ by Ibrim X. Kendi right now and your poem fits well with what I’m learning.
I feel the same, like I wish I had known more. I was protected as a child, but not as an adult, so here we are. Thanks for letting me know about Ibrim X Kendi.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post and poem. It’s important to remember that racism can be subtle. It’s all too easy for folks to decry the egregious examples and overlook less obvious, deeply rooted problems.
Janice, your beautiful poem highlights an ugly reality. Thank you for reminding me of subtle bias and microaggressions. I’m looking more deeply into my own behaviors and how I can be more actively anti-racist.
Thank you, Laura. I think we are all doing that, looking at ourselves and asking questions. Stay well.