Please note that this is a poet written by a Black Caribbean journalist in the 1930s, and not a provocation or incitation to racial hatred.
Any accent would be fine.
Here I would need a declamation of this poem by a woman. Don't forget the author at the end, and please make a very short pause between each verse so it can be recognized as a poem.
Thank you !
Nigger
They called me “Nigger,”
Those little white urchins,
They laughed and shouted
As I passed along the street,
They flung it at me:
“Nigger! Nigger Nigger!”
What made me keep my fingers
from choking the words in their throats?
What made my face grow hot,
The blood boil in my veins
And tears spring to my eyes?
What made me go to my room
And sob my heart away
Because white urchins
Called me “Nigger”?
You of the white skinned Race,
You who profess such innocence,
I’ll tell you why ‘tis sin to tell
Your offspring Coloured folks are queer,
Black men are bogies and inferior far
To any creature with a skin made white.
We will not be called “Niggers”
Since this was the favourite curse
Of those who drove the Negroes
To their death in days of slavery.
“A good for nothing Nigger,”
“Only one more Nigger gone”
They would repeat as though
He were a chicken or a rat.
That word then meant contempt,
All that was low and base,
And too refined for lower animals.
In later years when singing Negroes
Caused white men to laugh,
And show some interest in their art
They talked of “Nigger Minstrels”
And patronised the Negro,
And laughing at his songs
They could in nowise see
The thorns that pierced his heart.
God keep my soul from hating such mean souls,
God keep my soul from hating
Those who preach the Christ
And say with churlish smile
“This place is not for ‘Niggers’.”
God save their soul from this great sin
Of hurting human hearts that live
And think and feel in unison
With all humanity.
by Una Marson
Seems like a troll post.