Shana L. Smith “rooted”: http://coalblackvoices.com/poets/shanna/index.html
In her poem Shana references a myriad of civil rights activists, all of whom are female. The tough women will her forward, aiding her mentally as she prepares to do something- she never specifies what.
She hears the voices of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Fannie Lou Hamer, and they afford her no mercy as they whip her into shape, informing her of all those who’ve come before her and paved her way. She has to rise up and meet their standards so that all they have done will not have been in vain.
Though I’m a little removed from the issues of African Americans and know nothing of what it must be like to be African American, I feel some of the same pressures as Shana because I’m also a female. I think that’s why I liked this poem so much: All of her mentors are strong women. Being female, I mustn’t give into stereotypes, I must do everything to the best of my ability, and prove all of those who doubt me wrong, or else they’re right. And they’re not right.
-Emma
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