After reading the article \u201cThird World Quarterly row: Why some western intellectuals are trying to debrutalise colonialism,\u201d and the piece \u201cI am a Coolie\u201d I began to think about the more subtle, intimate consequences of colonialism. Be it the exploited people reclaiming derogatory terms like \u2018n****r\u2019 and \u2018coolie\u2019 to rather reflect all they\u2019ve endured and overcome. It is a constant navigation for pride in one\u2019s natural self through abstractions like language, love, and beauty that have been perverted by colonialism. I wrote a poem that I feel embodies the hurt and confusion when you can\u2019t find that pride because it has been systematically stolen from you.<\/p>\n
In English class, she learned
\nthat Juliet is the sun and she has spent years
\ntrying to feel her light. Years of sitting beneath
\nscorching heat scalding the tips of her girlhood
\nears while generational echoes tell her to
\nunkink the Dominican in her hair. The stench
\nof burning curls becomes the scent of
\napprehensive conformity and the blood lining
\nthe insides of her cheeks taste the way longing might.
\nShe looked to Juliet, to the sun, to see
\nremains of herself but she never found them.
\nInstead she cried the secrets of colonialism,
\nbecause she is Julietta, never Juliet.
\nThe moon tried to whisper to her \u201cVa con paz,\u201d
\non a bright morning before she realized the
\nsun had risen and she was to be lost, once more
\nand always, in its light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After reading the article \u201cThird World Quarterly row: Why some western intellectuals are trying to debrutalise colonialism,\u201d and the piece \u201cI am a Coolie\u201d I began to think about the more subtle, intimate consequences of colonialism. Be it the exploited people reclaiming derogatory terms like \u2018n****r\u2019 and \u2018coolie\u2019 to rather reflect all they\u2019ve endured and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3773,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mixingitup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}