dear white america

“Tonight, in Oakland” by Danez Smith (2015)

In “dear white america,” Smith references Oakland when describing America as brittle and broken and walking through the city. “Tonight, in Oakland” is in clear conversation with “dear white america”; “Tonight, the police / have turned to their God for forgiveness” (Line 17-18). In these two small lines, Smith quickly brings up the idea of police wrongdoings, their attempt to justify them, and the idea that they look to a God that is there to protect them and them alone.

“alternate names for black boys” by Danez Smith (2014)

In this poem, Smith employs numerical listing to, as the title suggests, provide alternative names for Black “boys.” These names are not actual names but phrases and ideas. Smith utilizes naming as a gesture in “dear white america”; here, Smith uses the listing convention to convey ideas like “5. guilty until proven dead” (Line 5) to demonstrate the mistreatment of Black men at the hands of the criminal “justice” system.

“Bullet Points” by Jericho Brown (2019)

Jericho Brown is a contemporary American poet and writer from Louisiana. Like Smith, much of his writing is concerned with the historical and present mistreatment of Black Americans.