While reading Emily Badgers  Whites Have a Huge Wealth Edge Over Blacks (but don’t know it), I found myself reading certain sentences and then imagining how someone might respond with an argument over the research and material Badger references. I decided to take a few statements from the researchers she interviews in the article, and rearrange the sentences in a way that would mirror a counter ‘argument’ or more rightly put, a biased opinion.  I chose this piece for my found poem because it triggered the anger and frustration that I’ve been feeling over the last few years as I have come to understand more about our country and society.

Reading this article, I was also reminded of the themes and rhetoric around the subject of inequality that I have heard growing up in a relatively wealthy, liberal town. People in my hometown really like to pride themselves with not being racist, and believing in a post-racial society, where these issues have been ‘overcome’. It wasn’t until moving away and then returning that I saw how untrue those ideas were, in addition to the fact that those beliefs are actually a major cause of what continues to fuel the inequality and wealth gap. This article summed up information that has been known, and circulated through media time and time again, and it emphasizes white Americas unwillingness to acknowledge its continuity. In my poem, I attempted to highlight a consistent theme of that unwillingness that I observe in the media and in conversations with people of varying political backgrounds.

Source:

Badger, Emily. “Whites Have Huge Wealth Edge Over Blacks (but don’t know it).” The New York Times 18 Sep. 2017: 7. The New York Times Web. 5 Nov. 2017.