Prof. Jessica Penner | OL05 | Fall 2020

Marina Malak Chin’s poem

Chin’s piece is very inspiring to hear, her choice of words is brave and straight to the point. She includes historical events such as slavery; focusing on the women’s experience. I think that her piece is extra special because we often learn about how horrible discrimination and slavery were from the man’s point of view but forget about women. Historically speaking, slavery in America had laws against it before women got their right to vote by law and women from all ethnicities and colors were affected by gender bias and discrimination, so imagine being black and a woman at the same time. Chin talk about how specially affected women of color and black women are up until now; women are being harassed and sexually assaulted in silence plus not being able to speak about it and be heard unless a white woman does. The poem shines a light on how society has double standards when it comes to the same issue happening to women but with different skin color; it shows how society turns a blind eye when the victim is a woman of color which is sad.

Her poem is directed to white women; because the black women’s experience is being ignored in their movements and disregarded in their statements. Chin talks about how privileged white women do not understand the strength of black women despite how much more they go through due to them being discriminated against for their skin color and their gender. I like the poem because I think everything Chin said is accurate and truly represent the society. People speak up whenever a white woman gets harassed and hurry to defend her and get her revenge; ion the mean while if something happen to a black woman no one seem to care. I watch many true crime TV and police is extra helpful if the missing person is white woman while if the missing person is a black woman, they sleep on it which usually leads to the woman getting hurt or even killed. It is inspiring and eye opening.

1 Comment

  1. Kiara Wright

    When you stated “Her poem is directed to white women; because the black women’s experience is being ignored in their movements and disregarded in their statements. Chin talks about how privileged white women do not understand the strength of black women despite how much more they go through due to them being discriminated against for their skin color and their gender.” I agree with you because I feel like what Chin said was right in a sense based off of history.

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