Browse Items (33 total)

This "Old Piedmont Negro dialect" poem was written by a white male student masquerading as a black storyteller. Its title refers to the fictional central character, Nias, an enslaved black man who is characterized as an unintelligent, unhygenic, yet…

The author of this poem claims that she is "an Asian who wants to be white" and begins the poem with the choice, "I want to be more American." When asked what's stopping her, though, she responds, "That's not who I am." The root of her desire to be…

This essay by then-editor-in-chief Louise Dinwiddie, analyzes the 1929 poem "The Chinese Nightingale" by white American writer Vachel Lindsay. The poem mentions many facets of Chinese culture and, as Dinwiddie recognizes, asserts that culture is…

This poem from the Spring 1990 issue of the Messenger features an assumedly French female student who corrects a classmate's pronunciation of the word 'femme fatale.' Another classmate then reminds her that they aren't in France. The narrator then…

This poem by a white student tells of the race dynamics of a public bus. It contrasts young students from St. Catherine's with black riders as the bus enters a poorer section of the city. The narrator claims that she is the only one who acknowledges…

In this poem, the narrator claims that Jewish people always live in sukkot (plural form of sukkah), defined at the end of the piece as "a small tent built for a week of meals and prayer to celebrate the Jewish harvest holiday of Succoth." It…

This poem is narrated by someone who feels left behind by a charismatic politician. References are made to the politician's constituents as being "scraps of self" and asking too much by expecting the politician to make their burdens his or her own,…

This page shows two poems written by Chinese student Poon Kant Mok of the 1927 graduating class, "First Love" and "Crossing." The first poem, "First Love," is a brief romantic piece. The second poem, "Crossing," discusses homesickness, a…

This poem, narrated by "the slave's dream and hope," attacks the idea of "good hair" as a superior, more acceptable alternative to natural black hair. It asserts that good hair should have been left on the plantations, and compares it to the song…

The narrator of this poem claims that, if he were black, he wouldn't mind being turned away from a white cemetery. The poem finishes by arguing that "it's white of them to give what tantamounts to [an integrated world], and makes us all, for what…