Critical (2) 1/15/2010

BFF?? By Mr. and Mrs. Parks

Noone seems to understand how I really feel inside,
Myself I have to hide,
To be what you want me to be,
But maybe that’s not me,
And maybe I don’t always want to fit in,
When it’s such a suffocating mold I have to get in,
And I just want to be myself,
And put this mask back on the shelf,
And can you handle the real me,
Can you swallow the things you would see,
Maybe you would think I’m insane,
But who gets to say what’s normal for the human brain,
And maybe you would find I’m gassy,
And you don’t think that’s very classy,
But I say class is just a societal invention,
Then maybe we could be friends,
And we could start to end,
This cycle of hate,
Maybe we could all just relate,
And that’s what I would like to do,
But you won’t do that-will you?




After reading this poem, since I am a history major I automatically thought of the minstrel shows. Minstrel shows were created by Thomas Dartmouth during the 19th century. Doing the shows Dartmouth paints his face dark black and performs a song and dance routine imitating a crippled black slave. The characters associated with minstrel shows were ignorant, racist and portrayed negative stereotypes regarding black people. The Minstrel shows was a success and eventually black people started to work in the minstrel shows during the mid 1850s. To keep the minstrel show traditional, blacks darkened their already dark skin and performed racist comedy routines. However, after the show blacks were not allowed to go to the after party with the white cast members, because they were black.

Now with the history of the Minstrel show out the way, the lines that made me think of this were lines 2, 6, 8, 9, 15 and 19. All these lines deal with the hardship that black actors faced during this time. By wearing the mask they were equivalent to whites and by taking the mask off they became inferior.

This poem teaches me that a simple middle school poem like this can portray a deeper meaning depending on the reader.