We Must Become Culturally Aware

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Red, white and blue, filled with such false pride. Flag colors and skin colors, they would have you divide. Black brother from black brother, and black men from white, manipulating colors to instigate a fight. From the Bloods to the Crips, to the white supremacists, they are soul-mates of hate in an ironic twist. They fail to view life’s colors in high definition. They opt to see their lives in black and white television. They mistakenly believe that it’s the colors that bind, lost within the duotone prisons of their minds. Perhaps they’ll escape the chains that have locked down their brains, and begin to see other hues than just the red, white and blues.
– (McCullough, 2011)
Critical Threshold
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand that there's a God, that there's a Savior too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negro's, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
- (Wheatley, 1834)
At the tender age of seven, Phillis Wheatley was brought from Africa to Boston as a slave. Slaves were not typically thought of as bright, creative or intelligent, but her owner saw a light in Phillis and at the age of thirteen, she tried her hand at poetry. Her experience was a unique one, given the opportunity to expand her mind by her owner, but unable to lift the veil of actually being a slave. Her poem expresses her great arrival from Africa, a joyous adventure, being rescued. If only all slaves were given this great arrival experience, more joyous poetry from slaves may have been written. I enjoy this simplicity of this poem from the eyes of a thirteen year old slave child who wa...

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Mason, Matthew. 2006. Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic. Chapel Hill,
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McCullough, P. (2011). Un-American. Black Poems
Rubel, D. 2005. The Coming Free: The Struggle for African-American Equality. New York,
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