The Afrolumens Project presents "Affirmative Action, 1940's Style," a poem by Marian Cannon Dornell.
Introduction by the author:
"For me, it helps to be able to forgive the meanness of the city that often refused to look beyond the fact that I was just a 'little colored girl.' I use writing and sometimes photography as the means to deal with my anger. One poem I've written has to do with an incident that happened to me as a third-grader at Boas Elementary. In the poem, "Affirmative Action, 1940s Style," there is no mention of the school or the teacher, but it shows how my parents raised and protected me as a child from the slights and hurts that were ever-present in the lives of Black people."
Affirmative Action, 1940s Style
Monday morning home sick from school . We listened to Young Doctor Malone, Ma Perkins, duck in and out of troubles. Jingles jumped over and over again out of the radio. Oxydol bleaching Rinso White-ning Super Suds agitating in the growling round wringer washer with Mama filled the tub with another load of clothes and more hot water she carried in a On the back porch perched twin square zinc tubs filled to the brim~ Daddy always said the turquoise dress went the best with my vanilla lumpkin's skin. On Monday that woman's hands were tough enough to dispatch a week's worth Sheets and dresses clapped hems in praise. But come Tuesday But one of them had to play laundress because By Thursday Marian Cannon Dornell Saturday, December 16, 2000 |
Editor's note: This poem was published in Ms. Dornell's book Unicorn in Captivity under the title "Come Tuesday."
All rights reserved to Marian Cannon Dornell.
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Video interview of Marian Cannon Dornell discussing her book Unicorn in Captivity Watch Here
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