Not an Elegy for Mike Brown

"alternate names for black boys" by Danez Smith (2014)

“alternate names for black boys” was originally published in Poetry Magazine in March 2014. The poem also appears in Smith’s first full-length collection of poetry, [insert] Boy (2014). “alternate names for black boys” catalogs the stereotypical images associated with young, Black males, formatted into a list of 17 items. Smith uses a combination of concrete and abstract imagery to convey how the dehumanization of Black youth leads to violence against them. The main thematic concern of “alternate names for black boys” is the loss of Black innocence, paralleling the ideas found within “not an elegy for Mike Brown.” The language of boyhood is also extremely important to both of these poems, as they each interrogate societal structures such as the police force that cause Black youth to be seen as a threat, lamenting the fact that Black boys are killed before they even have the chance to become men.

"dear white america" by Danez Smith (2017)

“dear white america” appears in Smith’s second full-length collection of poems, Don’t Call Us Dead (2017), along with “not an elegy for Mike Brown.” The poem “dear white america” serves as an open letter to white Americans, informing them of Smith’s departure from Earth in search of a better planet.