http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/11053
We chose this poem because it tells about how African-Americans overcame the adversity of slavery,segregation, and discrimination. We believe that this ability to overcome social obstacles , really sets the African race (those who suffered apartheid in South Africa and those who suffered slavery and segregation in America) apart as incredible people.
"For the cramped bewildered years we went to school to learn to know the reasons why and the answers to and the people who and the places where and the days when, in memory of the bitter hours when we discovered we were black and poor and small and different and nobody cared and nobody wondered and nobody understood;
For the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things to be man and woman, to laugh and dance and sing and play and drink their wine and religion and success, to marry their playmates and bear children and then die of consumption and anemia and lynching."
We chose this poem because it tells about how African-Americans overcame the adversity of slavery,segregation, and discrimination. We believe that this ability to overcome social obstacles , really sets the African race (those who suffered apartheid in South Africa and those who suffered slavery and segregation in America) apart as incredible people.
"For the cramped bewildered years we went to school to learn to know the reasons why and the answers to and the people who and the places where and the days when, in memory of the bitter hours when we discovered we were black and poor and small and different and nobody cared and nobody wondered and nobody understood;
For the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things to be man and woman, to laugh and dance and sing and play and drink their wine and religion and success, to marry their playmates and bear children and then die of consumption and anemia and lynching."