The poem compelled us to face the magnitude of ways in which our systems have been designed by white people for white people. It especially highlights the workings of a system that rewards Black people for separating themselves from their own communities; the classic effect of forced assimilation. The poem illustrated to us that structural racism demands so much of Black people—not only to work ten times harder than their white counterparts in order to be seen, but also to separate themselves to gain a moderate level of success and recognition. And yet, as our group considered, was the hard won success all it purported to be?
Read moreThe Body Politic: Fashioning our own earthly justice in a challenging time by Adam Lalley
In the short story “Good As New” by Andrew Taylor-Troutman in the Spring 2020 Intima, the site of a teenager’s accidental death becomes a healing destination. At the little white cross beneath an oak tree, cancer is cured and the wounded throw off their wheelchairs. But when a line of pilgrims stretches into the next county, the miracle dries up.
Some, but not all, are restored. The inequity mirrors the disparities of our very own bodies— our health, even the lengths of our lives, are doled out unequally. There’s no earthly justice in our bodies.
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