When I was a child my father demanded
\nrecite Kipling’s poem “If”
\nhe never mentioned Rudyard was a bigot
\nI found out only because I sniffed<\/p>\n
around in his collection of poems
\nbeyond my father’s plans
\ndiscovered the ripening he spoke of in “If”
\nwas the maturing of a racist white man<\/p>\n
Calling on his own ken
\nbring forth the best ye breed
\nto carry the burden of world dominion
\nthrough the foul deeds of his seed<\/p>\n
but a reply came from a poet far greater
\nthan this exalter of the fairer son
\nwho countered with the “Black Mans Burden”
\nnone lesser than Hubert Harrison<\/p>\n
against Kipling’s call to colonize and enslave
\nthe world dark as Kemet
\nHubert warned that to darker people
\nthe white man’s burden owed a global debt<\/p>\n
due to be paid in blood
\nbut nothing near the oceans you’ve shed
\nuntil we’ve purged the insane notions
\nof supremacy from inside your head<\/p>\n
you romanticize a creed of lies
\nexhalting tones of skin
\nnot a word of truth do you tell your youth
\nyour histories but lies and spin<\/p>\n
Kipling was a fool his throne a stool
\nperched upon two legs
\nthose he called the best ye bred
\nnone but society’s dregs<\/p>\n
creatures without morals
\nnor an inkling of humanity
\nwhose only blessings given the world
\ngreed bloodshed insanity<\/p>\n
Kipling was a champion of imperial aims
\nand so justified
\nthe exploitation of every colored nation
\nand of some their genocide<\/p>\n
imperialism and racism during his time
\nwere worn like badges of pride
\nbut after the second great war where the poor
\nlearned to even the score they had to hide<\/p>\n
their true faces in public spaces
\nthey donned a crooked smile
\nclaimed enlightened views a change of tune
\nbut their aims went unchanged all the while<\/p>\n
so be ye cast beneath all favor
\nyou and your fair complexioned kin
\nuntil you end the burdens you’ve laid on
\npeople of swarthy skin<\/p>\n
I wondered that my father
\nknew and elevated this bigot’s verse
\nbut Hubert’s words had never been heard
\nfor such contrasts I did thirst<\/p>\n
a precocious child I searched around
\nand found histories that lent me pride
\nand although some words of “If” I still know
\nlong ago I threw Kipling aside<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was a child my father demanded recite Kipling’s poem “If” he never mentioned Rudyard was a bigot I found out only because I sniffed around in his collection of poems beyond my father’s plans discovered the ripening he spoke of in “If” was the maturing of a racist …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3915,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions\/3915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}