Excellent point. Though many here will disagree. There have been discussions here over the years that seem to have denied there is one iota of racism in American and British poetry, and that black poets were more preoccupied writing identity politics poetry that is easily understood by "the masses", and not with writing avantgarde poems that use language more inventively --or something like that. This was used to explain the lack of black poets in avantgarde poetry, rather than dealing with the racial angle. This may explain why white US and UK poets haven't written anything about racism, as Dylan has.
------------------------------------Original Message------------------------------
Rupert Hildyard wrote:
Re Dylan's politics: if any white American (or British poet) wrote anything on American racism as excoriating as the handful of songs Dylan wrote or performed on African American history - Death of Emmett Till, Only a Pawn in their Game, Hattie Carroll, Auction Block, Hurricane, Blind Willie McTell - I'd like to know...
|