Poem about My Rights

One of the most interesting facets of “Poem About My Rights” is that June Jordan chooses to address not just the intersection of racism and sexism but also the ways these systems of oppression intersect with colonization. Throughout the poem, the speaker’s lack of power and experiences with violence are directly related to global imperialist issues. The speaker’s use of the first person plural perspective, especially in the middle of the poem, highlights Jordan’s hope to show how individual struggles reflect the larger political issues of the time in regard to systemic oppression.

After a direct call to the reader to “Follow Me” in Line 45, the speaker describes the CIA’s decision to remove different political leaders in African countries (Nkrumah in Ghana and Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo). Immediately following this description is a turn toward the speaker’s own “father on the campus / of [her] Ivy League school” (Lines 52-53). Jordan weaves together these images to showcase the interconnection of national racism and sexism with globalized efforts to colonize and control countries—particularly countries where Black people were in power.

The choice to center on the intersection of racism, sexism, and colonization supports Jordan’s overall argument in the poem: Forms of domination across the globe are inherently related to one another and function to violently oppress people.