Unrest In Baton Rouge By Tracy K. Smith: Poem Analysis

Tracy K. Smith, a creative writing professor at Princeton University, became the poet laureate in 2017. In several of

Smith’s poems, she writes about controversial topics such as racism, liberalism, and sexism. Racism is in America throughout its history has been seen as the prejudice of privileged White men directed against other races and, in particular, African­Americans. Despite many advances in race relations during the latter part of the twentieth century, the mainstream media today continues to perpetuate that idea that conservative White Americans discriminate against African­Americans with the same vehemence observed in our earlier history. In a similar fashion, much of the poetry written by Tracy K. Smith antagonizes African­Americans

not only into accepting that White America is prejudice toward them, but goes further by advocating reverse racism toward caucasians.
In Tracy K.

Smith’s poem, “Unrest in Baton Rouge,” she states “Our bodies run with ink dark blood” (1), a reference to the days of slavery when traders believed that the darker the blood of an African man, the stronger, more dependable, and more valuable he would be. The next line demonstrates an even darker theme: “Blood pools in the pavement seams” (Smith, 2). The line laments that, as perpetuated by the mainstream media, African­ Americans are being gunned down in the streets of this country indiscriminately by law enforcement officers. In terms of absolute numbers, more white Americans are killed by police that African­Americans (560 versus 318, respectively, in 2015 and 2016). Admittedly, based on relative population, African­Americans are more likely to be killed by police officers than whites; however, in 2015 and 2016 there were a total of just 1388 and 1034 police involved shootings, representing just 0.0003 ­ 0.0004% of the U.S. population (Palma). While any death is lamentable, it is clear from these numbers that the police are not out looking to kill black men. While she

studied
at Harvard, Tracy K. Smith was a member of the Dark Room Collective, a group open only to minority writers. While this type of a group is considered completely acceptable in today's liberal society, the creation of a “White Room Collective” for caucasian writers would be deemed antagonistic toward minorities. Protests would immediately be launched, the members disparaged publically as racist, hateful white thugs, and the group would be forced to disband. Why is a group for minority writers praised? This is the double standard from which Smith writes her prose. In addition to the theme of racism, liberalism is clearly praised through many of Smith’s poems.
Smith demonstrates her liberal way of thinking through her poetry and many young students across the United States are forced to read and write about her work. Because of her position as the Poet Laureate of the United States, Smith is able to force her view upon these students. One of Smith's first reading tours was planned James E. Clyburn, who accompanied Smith throughout the tour. At the time, Clyburn was a leading liberal democrat in the U.S. Congress (Franklin). This shows Smith’s clear ties to the democratic party and its liberal views. The liberal democratic view that police are quick engage suspects with deadly force, lack accountability, and are not impartial in upholding the law (Elkins and Feeney) is clearly demonstrated in Smith’s “Unrest in Baton Rouge.”
Smith describes police as “men in black armor” (5).

This description can make the officers seem very intimidating compared to the more common and respectful “men in blue.” The intimidating language continues with “Jangling handcuffs and keys,”(Smith 6) evoking the idea that the African­American protesters in the photo that inspired the poem are going to be arrested without cause. And finally the disrespectful tone continues as officers are called heartless with “what else/ Are they so buffered against, if not love’s blade”(Smith 7). With the writing of the poem “Unrest in Baton Rouge” Smith can be seen as an instigator to further unrest in Baton Rouge due to the publicity the poem received. The unrest elicited by her poetry is likely to extend well beyond its inspiration in Baton Rouge and could span the continent’s urban centers with its proclamation of the acceptability of violent protest, a “Skirt lifted in a different kind of breeze,” (12) over peaceful protest. Smith’s “Unrest in Baton Rouge” basically says do not listen to the police, but fight

them.

Another commonly observed societal problem is sexism and, as with other contentious societal issues, Tracy K. Smith’s poetry weighs in on this topic as well. Smith discusses sexism in her poem “Sci­Fi” when she states “Women will still be women, but/ The distinction will be empty. Sex,”(7­8). Smith makes the inference that women will still be women but men will no longer be men. In Smith’s “The Good Life,” she uses the wording “Like a woman journeying for water/ From a village without a well, then living” (7­8). This demonstrates Smith’s beliefs that women are above men because they can survive without water like goddesses. Smith uses sexist remarks in her poems to extol her radical viewpoints.
Tracy K. Smith in many of her poems uses the themes racism, liberalism and sexism to try to sway the readers to her point of view with respect to these morals. Smith uses these themes to instigate war between races, political parties, and sexes. With the theme of racism she tries to tell African­Americans that they are better than, not equal with, Caucasians. Smith also tries to persuade young readers to accept liberalism. Sexism, as seen in Smith’s poems, is shows that she views females to be above, rather than on equal footing, with their male counterparts.