Riot: 60's

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Riot: 60's poetry detailing the situation in the 60s when the riot occurred. The lighting: 100 watts. Newark, Detroit and New York.

Poem

Our

YOUR FRIEND CHARLIE pawnshop

was a glorious blaze

I heard the flames lick

then eat the trays

of zircons

mounted in red gold alloys

Easter clothes and stolen furs

burned in the attic

radios and teevees

crackled with static

plugged in

only to a racial outlet

Some

thought the FRIENDLY FINANCE FURNITURE CO.

burned higher

When a leopard print sofa with gold legs

(which makes into a bed)

caught fire

an admiring groan from the waiting horde

“Absentee landlord

you got that shit”

Lighting: a hundred Watts

Detroit, Newark and New York

Screeching nerves, exploding minds

lives tied to a policeman’s whistle

a welfare worker’s doorbell

finger.

Hospitality, southern-style

corn pone grits and you-all smile

whole blocks novae

brand new stars

policemen caught in their

brand new cars

Chugga chugga chigga

git me one nigga

lootin’ n burnin’

he won’t git far

Watermelons, summer ripe

grey neck bones and boiling tripe

supermarket roastin like the

noon-day sun

national guard nervous with his shiny gun

goose the motor quicker

here’s my nigga picka

shoot him in the belly

shoot him while he run

(Maya Angelou)

Racism Issue

As in these race riots of the 60s, Angelou switches between different cases. From these protests to those in Ferguson or in Baltimore 50 years later, little has changed. Angelou sits with a smirk in this triumphant clash of prejudice, classism, and poor and oppressive classes, thus recording main attitudes. Setting the scene, we see bright and burning colors coming from a pawnshop in the first two stanzas. The focus of the "radios and teevees" shows how the people of the 60s were tuned into these activities, but since they were "crackled with static" one can also conclude that specific information was not obtained by these individuals.

The incidents are easily distorted by news stations as they unfold. Some may report that the "waiting horde" seems to be aloof and uncaring about the tragedy that is affecting their world. No one really seems worried about what the riots were really trying to fight for (as shown by the lack of details in the other four stanzas). In a sea of madness, the message is lost. Meanwhile, the great incidents of police violence that unfold and the unbearable stress created by survival in these horrific situations are occurrences that are overshadowed. As the whole area stands on the edge in fear of the next issue about to erupt in their neighborhood,' screeching nerves' are commonplace.

Reference

  1. Angelou, Maya. Riot: 60's. Retrieved January 1 2020.
  2. A Year of Angelou: Riot: 60's. Retrieved January 1 2020.