Tag Archives: slavery

Ivanka Doesn’t Understand “Beloved”

By Robin Bates | Published: May 10, 2017

When Ivanka Trump quotes Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” in her recent book, she does everything I tell my students not to: she reduces the work to herself.

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Must I Dwell in Slavery’s Night?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 8, 2017

In anticipation of Passover, I share a poem composed by the African American slave George Moses Horton.

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Lift Every Voice and Sing

By Robin Bates | Published: January 14, 2017

Both Martin Luther King and James Weldon Johnson, in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” drew strength and courage from the Book of Exodus.

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Light a Land Whose Children Shall Be Free

By Robin Bates | Published: October 22, 2016

Phoebe Cary’s 1849 poem about a bountiful harvest turns sour as she considers slaves who are not harvesting a bounty for themselves. Her Christian imagery anticipates the way Christian beliefs would bolster those fighting against slavery twelve years later.

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Butler & Grappling with White Privilege

By Robin Bates | Published: October 2, 2016

The figure of the white husband in Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” captures many of the blind spots of white privilege. Examining him led me to examine how I myself have benefitted from America’s slave past.

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We Must Revisit Slavery To Find Healing

By Robin Bates | Published: September 29, 2016

After attending some remarkable reconciliation events dealing with America’s history of slavery, I now have a better understanding of Octavia Butler’s time travel novel about slavery–and about why the protagonist doesn’t escape back to the present unharmed.

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Whitman, Melville & Abolitionism

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2015

Walt Whitman and Herman Melville’s revolutionary visions of egalitarian societies shaped how Abolitionists thought about America’s potential.

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Clifton Brings Black History Alive

By Robin Bates | Published: February 6, 2015

Lucille Clifton insists on the telling the historical truth, even if it makes whites uncomfortable.

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The Jordan River Continues to Inspire

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2014

The River Jordan, an inspiring image for American slaves, has worked it was into contemporary African American poems, including those of Lucille Clifton.

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