Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 82

What is Found There? A Poem In Memoriam of Our Collective Memory

May 30, 2022

Happy Monday and Memorial Day —

One of my toxic traits, especially when feeling down, is indulging in capitalism.

Yesterday, I spent most of my day walking in SoHo, one of New York City’s most popular shopping areas, buying myself shirts, artwork, and jewelry. When I walked into popular stores such as Zara, Uniqlo, or Bloomingdales, I immediately scanned for the number of exits and where I might dart to if a gunman (purposeful emphasis on the man) walked in and started to indiscriminately shoot at random, much like the tragedies of Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX.

Even now, as I sit in a relatively quiet and empty coffee shop, I’ve already come up with two different strategies if chaos were to ensue.

This is not normal. It’s what living in a perpetual state of trauma looks like. And while today might officially be “Memorial Day,” to live in the United States is to live in a constant state of mourning.

According to NPR, there have been eight mass shootings since Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde. Like me, 75 percent of Black people in America are worried that we or someone we love will be attacked because of the color of our skin, according to a new Washington Post poll. This is not normal.

Today’s Opinion section dives into the idea of collective memory and what true commemoration for all of the people who have given their lives for the betterment of this country might look like in the form of a poem.

I’ve been reading more poetry as of late and have started to dive into the work of Amanda Gorman, Ada Limon, and Clint Smith.

Like rap and hip-hop, the beauty of narrative poetry is that it can tell us a complex story that evoke emotion in subtle, figurative ways through just a few verses. I think writing poetry can make us all better people, and so, I try my hand at it today.

Here are some reparations-related articles I suggest reading:

Amanda Gorman’s poem, ‘Hymn for the Hurting,’ in the New York Times.
The Crimson gives an update on the skepticism from activists and descendants after the release of the report on Harvard’s legacy with slavery was released a few weeks ago.
The New York Times released this touching long-form eulogy for Celestine Chaney, one of the victims of the Buffalo massacre.
A Washington Post column reminds us that in the same way that Haiti made reparations payments to French enslavers, Washington D.C., did the same thing after the end of slavery in the U.S.
A church in Maryland is exploring how to create a “fund to make reparations for systemic racism and slavery. They’ve awarded six organizations $30,000 as a result. (Note: I don’t believe giving grant dollars to Black-led nonprofits is a form of “reparations,” but I think it’s helpful to see how organizations are approaching this conversation.)
The Scientific American, which is not particularly known for articles related to racial issues, published this piece outlining how we must be vigilant in how white supremacists use behavioral science and genetics research to further their racist beliefs.
I’ve been on an Ezra Klein kick recently. This episode with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates is a must listen, and this conversation with Ada Limon is part of the inspiration for today’s Opinion.

With radical love,
Trevor

Opinion

I’ll be renaming the Hot Takes section to simply the Opinion section and hope to feature more voices other than my own in the coming months.

To kick off the conversation with Ada Limon, Klein quoted a William Carlos William poem called ‘Asphodel’ in which he says, “It is difficult/ to get the news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack / of what is found there.”

This last line in particular, “what is found there,” resonated with me and forced me to ask myself what can be found in our collective memory and how does it play a role in who and what we memorialize?

What Is Found There? - Trevor Smith (Best read when listened to Pieces by Bonobo)

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

What can be found in the colors red, white and blue? 
In a collective memory that refuses truth?
In the shattered lives scattered across 50 states?
Our bloodied feet shredded by broken treaties
Stolen land, 
Whips,
On the backs, 
Of our buried ancestors. 
What can be found there? 
In our hidden history? 
That we must shield little ones from? 

What should be found, 
If the truth, 
Is self-evident?
If our bank of memories, 
Have insufficient funds
Our memorials then, 
Are forever incomplete.
So, what can be found, 
In the chasm of our nostaglia?

I am still searching 
We, 
Are still searching
For the walk down a lane of memory,
On the avenue of truth,
Down the street of liberation
That will lead us somewhere.
Perhaps, 
To freedom.