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Sarai Sepulveda

Professor McCann

English 1301.127

1 December 2021

Tackling Social Issues Through Poetry

 In a country where the constitutional motto of “We the People” is engraved upon the

pavement that was laid down by the same people who are met with daily disrespect, America

receives the most embarrassing irony as a slap in the face. To proudly take the blame for the slap

stands poets of different communities such as those of Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian descent.

When all is said and done, the last resort is always a meaningful paragraph, for when one’s

actions are not enough, the only other place one can turn to is written words. The first option is

to scream as loud as one can in hopes anyone will listen because when direct action fails, one’s

voice still remains. Therefore, it becomes a vicious cycle of screaming and writing until the

throat gives out and the hand can no longer move. For Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian poets, they

end the cycle and turn it into a one-fold plan where the beauty of speech and written expression

are combined to create slam poetry. Since the beginning of the United States, the foreigner

turned citizen is still terribly viewed as a foreigner. In itself, being “foreign” is not the issue but

rather racism, discrimination, and horribly apparent prejudice that, on behalf of the foreigner, is

unknowingly thrown into the deal. It is seen throughout the news, social media, and in everyday

life that the constant struggle of being perceived as “other” is one that people of different

ethnicities have been battling their whole lives. Fortunately, certain people are rising to the

occasion to speak out on these issues through the form of poetry. Although it is not one’s

conventional manner of taking action, poetry touches the hearts of people in ways that protests
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and assemblies could never. The use of poetry allows Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian poets to

express their personal hardships through the creative elements of repetition, dialogue, and

figurative language. 

The practice of reiterating words to convey a deeper and emphatic message within the

poems “Where are You Really From?” by Carlos Andres Gomez, “Ling Ling” by YaYa, and

“We teach life, sir” by Rafeef Ziadah enable these communities to evoke their frustrations in the

minds of their audience. They are able to take commonly voiced words and apply them to their

poems where they are then able to create a deeper sense of importance. When one typically

rereads the same words over again, one immediately assumes that the text is redundant. In

poems, this is not the case as they use repetition to highlight the crucial points of the poem. To

illustrate, in the poem “Where Are You Really From?” the lines, “The question "Where are you

from?" in our current America is a slur disguised with a question mark, a passive-aggressive

microaggression saying you are other, saying you are not from here, saying you are not nor will

ever be one of us, saying go back to where you came from,” focus on the main message of

revealing the truth behind the questioning of one’s origins (Gomez lines 36-41). The repeated

use of the word “saying” expresses the Hispanic community’s true understanding behind the

frequently uttered question “Where are you really from?” Despite the fact that a question used in

conversation requires two people to ask and answer, Gomez conveys the idea that the question is

answered the second it is asked. Similarly, in YaYa’s poem “Ling Ling,” repetition is

implemented to share the thought process many non-Asians have about Asians, “Chinese baby

girl left on the footsteps of a hospital, Chinese girl, be quiet at the dinner table, Chinese object,

take in all the Ling-Lings and men with Yellow fever. Chinese woman, serve tea to the guests.

Chinese leftovers, marry before 24. Chinese wife, be obedient to your husband. Chinese
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daughter, learn your place in the household,” are lines that show the many demands Chinese

females are expected to follow (lines 49-56). The repetition of “Chinese” signifies that the

blending of Asian and American ideals result in these pressures that many tend to adopt. Thus,

the constant and challenging outlook on the Asian community only furthers their irritation with

the ill-perceived ideas of other people. Rafeef Ziadah also takes on the art of calling to people’s

attention with repeated phrases in her poem “We teach life, sir.” Throughout the poem, Ziadah

takes pieces from her first few lines and reiterates them throughout the course of the poem, but

the most significant example of repetition is towards the end. The lines read, “No sound bite, no

sound bite, no sound bite, no sound bite will bring them back to life. No sound bite will fix this.

We teach life, sir. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of

the world life, sir,” referring to her mention of a journalist who was asking for a sound bite on

the current situation Palestinians were facing (Ziadah lines 44-48). The journalist was the same

man who asked her why they taught their children to hate, igniting a flame within her that

becomes apparent in these lines. Ziadah speaks on behalf of her community that a tiny speech

will not solve the problems they are facing, problems that they are not provoking as well. The

poets use repetition to embed the principal messages that they and their respective communities

are delivering.

Within these similarities also appear differences in their use of repetition as the Hispanic,

Asian, and Arabian communities all reiterate their ideas under distinct circumstances. For

instance, to represent the Hispanic community, Carlos Andres Gomez’s poem utilizes repetition

to almost give it a conversational tone where the repetition can be seen as stuttering. They

become various attempts to say a sentence but cannot get the full thing out because of the pure

adrenaline rushing through his veins that jumbles up his words. Such instances can be seen in
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lines 16 and 17 where he angrily asks, “What am I?” twice before answering the question. These

strong feelings that ultimately give some insight into the sheer vulnerability of his words are not

the same for YaYa in “Ling Ling.” Throughout her repetition of “Chinese” with some form of

“female” after it, she carries a strong and powerful tone that demonstrates the Asian community

understands what is expected of them so well that they can even list it out. In Rafeef Ziadah’s

poem, these demonstrations are thrown out the window as she prioritizes repeating her main

message, “We teach life, sir.” The frequent repetition serves more as reminders of what the poem

is about rather than emphasizing her community’s understanding. As seen, context and repetition

work together to create these differences in repetition among the poems that are all because of

unique situations the Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities are facing.

Often reserved for storytelling and theater productions, dialogue is powerfully evident

throughout the poetry of Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities to demonstrate the reality of

discrimination. “Where are You Really From?” by Carlos Andres Gomez, “Ling Ling'' by YaYa,

and “We teach life, sir” by Rafeef Ziadah exemplify how these communities utilize conversation

in poetry to denote the overarching problem of racism. A common link found between “Where

Are You Really From?” and “We teach life, sir” is that dialogue is used to set up their poems.

The dialogue provides the foundation that then allows the poets to introduce the problems that

stem from conversations like these. For instance, the first three lines of Gomez’s poem are, “The

man’s words are not offered, but flung. ‘So what are you? Where are you from?’”(lines 1-3).

Right off the bat, the audience is welcomed to the foreigner’s world of unwelcomed interrogation

at any given moment. This is similar to the fifth line of “We teach life, sir” where Ziadah also

provides the other person’s input, “But still, he asked me. ‘Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that

everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?’”
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(line 5). These pieces of dialogue allow for both communities to explain how these types of

questions become the epitome of prejudice among Hispanic and Arabian communities. Still, in

“Ling Ling” the dialogue, “My father turns to me and explains a joke he heard. He says, I’m like

a banana. My mind curious, I asked, “Baba, what does that mean?” He says, “Yellow on the

outside, white on the inside,” also shows how the stereotypical comments make their way into

the everyday household as well. The impact it has on the “foreigner” goes a long way as

demonstrated between all three poems. Each uses dialogue to show an example of the problem at

hand or how the problem is often presented in real-life situations. 

On the other hand, the communities use dialogue to develop their poems in distinct ways.

In Gomez’s “Where are You Really From?”, the question is the dialogue that he then uses to

build his whole poem around. After all, the poem is titled “Where are You Really From?” As the

poem continues, each new idea he introduces also serves as an answer to the question whereas in

“Ling Ling”, the dialogue is only mentioned once in the middle of the poem to support the idea

of not feeling Chinese when placed in an American setting (YaYa lines 11-12). The dialogue is

also an interaction between the speaker and her father, creating a familiar environment where

“jokes” like these are all too familiar. In “We teach life, sir,” the dialogue is found after a

powerful build-up that leads to the actual conversation. Within the conversation, it is obvious

that the other person hits a nerve with their question. When one is probed on a sensitive topic, it

usually accumulates some tension that eventually explodes. The rest of the poem after the

dialogue is the explosion in its full effect. The position of the dialogue within the poem

significantly changes the way it is meant to be perceived as it greatly alters the poem in its

entirety. 
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The poems also all share examples of figurative language that aid in making up creative

comparisons to illustrate the bias and stereotypes Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities

experience in their daily lives. Starting off, in “Where Are You Really From?”, the very first line

captures the audience’s attention with a hooking form of personification. “The man’s words to

me are not offered to me, but flung,” reads the first line, already alluding to the main question

that was previously discussed. Despite this clever reference, the object-like attribution given to

“words” almost makes it seem as if it really were something tangible and consequently harming

the person it was thrown at. Gomez shows that the hostility Hispanics face is not reserved for

physical violence, but for verbal violence as well. Likewise, in YaYa’s poem, she also talks

about the hostility Asian Americans face despite their grand efforts in helping the United States

grow. In lines 28 through 34 of the poem “Ling Ling”, she uses onomatopoeia to recreate the

sounds of the railroads Asian Americans were known for constructing that benefited the United

States immensely, “The sound of the hammers hitting the tracks play in my head, chink.

Thousands of unrecorded deaths, chink. Grand opening, Atlantic to the Pacific, chink. The

Chinese Exclusion Act, chink. Alienization, chink. Otherization and 150 years later, chink,”

YaYa repeats this sound as a form of stimulation, associating important events for Asian

Americans with the "chink" sound. The tone she takes is one of the same hostilities they would

also receive. In addition, Ziadah’s poem includes an example of metaphors to compare her life to

that of destruction exploited in the media. The line reads, “Today my body was a TV’d

massacre,” talking about the force Palestinians are met with for public gain (Ziadah line 1).

Again, this hostility becomes evident as it is seen that it is never kindness nor understanding that

other people approach these communities with. Through the different devices of figurative
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language, the Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities express the brutal cliches and

antagonizing events they have encountered.

While the figurative language creates common bridges between the poems, there are still

differences that demonstrate the specific distinctions in hostility. For example, in “Where are

You Really From?”, the personification of “words” shows how people often take the aggressive

route of asking questions rather than slowly offering them. People immediately assume the

position of modern day detective by attempting to reach a conclusion on one’s roots. In “Ling

Ling,” the onomatopoeia tends to focus its attention more on the past hostility towards Asian

Americans than the racial aggressions they experience today. The “chink” sounds of the railroads

take readers back to the days where Asian Americans would labor away for the better of a nation

that would still act unfairly towards them. On the contrary, in “We teach life, sir” the metaphor

remains in the present as it details that Ziadah’s body was a TV’d massacre “today”. Instead of

looking back on the conflict, she uses the metaphor to explain how she is exploited in the current

state she and the Arabian community are in. The variety in figurative language makes it easy to

derive all the different meanings from each poem as they all look at the situation from a broader

perspective and distinct contexts of time.

To conclude, the use of the expressive components of repetition, dialogue, and figurative

language in the poems of Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities’ shines light on the racial

sufferings they struggle with every day. Within their poetry, each poet is able to uniquely

communicate their beliefs on the issue of racism and discrimination with the support of each

creative element. For these three ethnicities, the constant allegations and remarks made towards

them have become all too familiar, yet that does not mean it is something they should just live

with. Through poetry, these communities voice their opinions and bring deeper meaning to their
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daily hardships. Sometimes, poems hold the right amount of power that individuals are able to

realize that they truly are more than just words. There is so much one can do with poetry and

fighting for an end to racial discrimination is just a taste of it.

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Works Cited

Gomez Carlos Andrés. “Where Are You Really From?” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Oct. 2019,

https://youtu.be/701a3ZgT1EE.

YaYa. “Ling Ling.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Mar. 2019, https://youtu.be/o0-5I2BQ3V4.

Ziadah, Rafeef. “We Teach Life, Sir.” YouTube, YouTube, 13 Nov. 2011,

https://youtu.be/aKucPh9xHtM.