Look, white people, just don’t touch African American culture in any way, shape, or form. Just don’t. It’s not going to end well for you, no matter how benign your usage of black tropes are. Take it from poet Anders Carlson-Wee, who employed black vernacular in a poem and has had his reputation trashed for it.
On Friday, the New York Times wrote about the incident, in which Carlson-Wee published a poem from the first-person perspective of a homeless man, in the far-left magazine, The Nation. But Anders Carlson-Wee’s subject was a black man.
Controversy ensued and Carlson-Wee and The Nation’s editors had to immediately apologize. The New York Times weighed in, tut-tutting the poet for his unwieldy contribution to the history of cultural appropriation, and approving his subsequent apology.
“Online battles over cultural appropriation may be relatively new, but Mr. Carlson-Wee's poem is part of a long queasy history of white poets adopting black vernacular.”
Don’t forget that this is the same New York Times that stood by new-hire Sarah Jeong after her white people-bashing tweets. Whitey be damned, I guess. Well, at least he’s cushioned by all that privilege, right?
The 14-line poem, titled, “How To,” was written from the perspective of a homeless man looking for the best way to play on the moral sensibilities of strangers in order to get a handout. The Times reported that “after a firestorm of criticism on social media over a white poet’s attempt at black vernacular, as well as a line in which the speaker makes reference to being ‘crippled,’ the magazine said that it had made ‘a serious mistake’ in publishing it.’
Of course it did. “Crippled” is “ableist.” And unless Carlson-Wee is disabled, he has not more right to appropriate that than he does to use black vernacular. Slate had a recent article about complaints that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson should not be able to portray an amputee on screen.
Carlson-Wee’s lengthy Facebook and Twitter apology was suitably contrite, given the magnitude of his crimes. The poet wrote, “I am sorry for the pain I have caused, and I take responsibility for that. I intended for this poem to address the invisibility of the homeless, and clearly it doesn’t work.”
He added, “Treading anywhere close to blackface is horrifying to me and I am profoundly regretful.”
The Times pointed out that Anders’ poem and the ensuing backlash was bad for poetry in general. The article stated, “For an art form starved for attention, it was not the kind of publicity poetry needed.” It also noted that, for right-wing media, this was another notch in their debate against those that scream, “Cultural Appropriation!”
Why would we get that impression? Because the Times turned to writer Roxane Gay, who stated, “Don’t use AAVE [African-American Vernacular English.] Don’t even try it.” There was also black Chicago poet, Nate Marshall, who tweeted, “It feels offensive to me, and like it’s trafficking inappropriately in black language.
