*At the 2015 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley passionately delivered poetry together that spoke about the individual struggles of growing up African-American as well as growing up female in America.
Check out the video below and note at the beginning how they swap microphones before they deliver lines for each other.
Their performance is particularly timely in light of the conversations surrounding race and racism with the recent terrorist attack in Charleston, Bree Newsome, a superhero activist who refused to wait for lawmakers to remove the Confederate flag, and Rachel Dolezal, a White woman who lied about being Black in order to make a living, but claims to “identify as Black.”
In a performance meant to illustrate the difference between being an ally and hijacking someone’s voice, the poem, “Lost Voices,” hits on the struggles and experiences of Simpson, a Black man and Scout, a White woman.
“My body has become cause to write legislation, cause for a** smacks in the back of a class, my body has demanded everything except respect,” said Simpson on Bostley’s behalf.
Simpson claims he didn’t realize he was Black until the year 2000, when they “learned about Blacks in 2nd grade.”
Bostley said for Simpson, “The first day I realized I was Black, it was 2000, we had just learned about Blacks for the first time in 2nd grade, at recess, all the White kids chased me into the woods chanting ‘slave.’”
And then, in unison, they spoke to their allies. “Never will I turn away an ally… but when a man speaks on my behalf, that only proves my point. Movements are driven by passion, not by asserting yourself dominant by a world that already puts you there.”
Switching places once more, they delivered their final lines in their own voice, to thunderous applause.
The response to the video on social media has been mixed, with many commending the poets, while others aren’t convinced that the voice of a “privileged” White woman in America can be compared to that of the Black struggle. One commenter even suggested that when Black folks speak about the struggle, it seems not to have much effect until a White person speaks about it, only then will people pay attention with open ears and wide eyes and act stunned.
Your thoughts?
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