Title Goes Here

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 ones. 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 are 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. So 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 the 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 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,” focuses 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

daughter, learn your place in the household,” are lines that show the many demands Chinese

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

blending of Asian and American ideals results 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.

Repetition is used to embed the principal messages delivered by the poets and their respective

communities.

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 as in 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 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?” 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?” 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,” it demonstrates a connection 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 the poems 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 boosts 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.

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

comparisons to illustrate the bias and stereotypes Hispanic, Asían, and Arabiam 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”, they use 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 form of stimulation, associating important events for Asian

Americans with the "chink" sound. The tone she takes is one of the same hostility 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. 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 language the

Hispanic, Asian, and Arabian communities express their personal

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. 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 takes readers back to the

days where Asaian 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 the 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 in a broader perspective.

To conclude,

Dialogue similarities: Where are you really from and We teach life, sir use dialogue to set

up their poems. Provides the foundation or introduction to then get into the problems that stem

from conversations like these. All three are similar because the dialogue is used to show an

example of the problem at hand or how the problem is often presented like in Ling Ling.

Dialogue differences: In Where are you really from the dialogue begins the poem to

introduce the idea and then solely focuses on the idea. In Ling-Ling the dialogue is only an

excerpt, a mere memory used as a stepping stone to reach bigger ideas. In “We teach life, sir”,

the dialogue is introduced and then the whole poem develops around it.

5 Questions:

1. What would be the best way to state the differences and similarities in my thesis

without making it too wordy?

2. For my similarities and differences, should I focus on the elements of slam poetry and

how the communities use them?

3. When comparing and contrasting can I do two communities and then all three of them

too?
 4. Should I focus on the 3 different examples of slam poetry that I found for each

community or should I find more examples?

5. Is my genre too vague and would it be difficult to include all the different details

within it? Can I restrict it anyway?

Should I mention that it is slam poetry? Can I still use slam poetry but just refer to it as poetry?

Instead of saying figurative language should I mention which specific ones? Or should I just

mention it in the paragraph where I mention the similarities and differences?

Should I compare and contrast a certain type of figurative language? Like the similarities and

differences in metaphors? Or should I break it up and do two different ones so similarities in

metaphors and then differences in idioms?

Is it best to

Genre: Poems
Communities: Ethnicity:
● Hispanic poets
○ “Where Are You Really From?” by Carlos Andres Gomez
○ Carlos Andrés Gómez - Where are You Really From?
○ https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/carlos-
andres-gomez-where-are-you-really/
1The man's words to me are not offered, but flung.
2"So, what are you?
3 Where are you from?"
4I say,
5" New York."
6"But your name is Carlos.
7I mean, where are you really from?
8I say,
9"New York."
10"Bueno, yo soy latino. Mi padre es colombiano.
11 Mi madre es estadounidense. Nací en New York City.
12I lived in four countries. Moved 12 times.
13Went to 12 schools before I graduated high school"
14is not what I would say in 12,341 years
15because I don't owe a damn thing to anyone.
16What am I?
17 What am I, a financial aid form? A vegan red-velvet cupcake recipe?
18Dude discovers his first Latino with green eyes
19and suddenly appoints himself the authority on Latinidad.
20Like, "But you totally don't look Mexican."
21"Oh, Colombian, but like what percentage are you?"
22"You speak it, though? Fluently? Dance salsa well?"
23"Oh, but not both parents."
24"You've been there, but not lived there, because you weren't born there."
25 I'm not a government questionnaire.
26 I'm not an anecdote for your homogeneous social gathering
27of your homogeneous friends.
28I know, everyone you hang out with looks like you,
29has a name you're able to pronounce and/or share,
30and/or sounds pulled directly from an episode of Leave it to Beaver.
31 Here's the deal.
32 Latin America is not just Mexico,
33actually pronounced Méjico, pero whatever.
34 Central America is not part of South America,
35and Mexican is still not a language.
36The question "Where are you from?" in our current America
37is a slur disguised with a question mark,
38a passive-aggressive microaggression saying you are other,
39saying you are not from here,
40saying you are not nor will ever be one of us,
41saying go back to where you came from.
42But I... I am from a place beyond place,
a place where, once you're from there, you can never leave,
because it exists beyond dirt and flesh,
beyond your linear and limited concept of time.
I am from bloodlines unkillable as water.
I am the return that is only earned
when absence has stretched its greedy void
across a passage as stoic and sacred as an abuela's hard-edged love.
I am my black and Latina daughter's grace,
chimeraed into the cobalt pulse of these once-too-often fists.
I am a boy without a word of English in his mouth
in a Catholic school classroom in South Florida,
his son on a stage 58 years later, tonight,
reading this poem for him.
I am the steady ray of light unlocking my mother's teeth
tossed skyward in a laugh,
what hard-earned joy looks like,
carved from the wreckage of a lifetime's worth of grief.
You are not ready for the answers to the questions you ask,
not ready for the worlds these words might shake free.
You could never understand what I am,
or where I am from.

● Asian poets
○ “Ling Ling” by YaYa
○ YaYa - "Ling Ling" @WANPOETRY (SLAM MANIA 2019)
1. - I'm four when I walk into my first day of preschool.
2. The kids mocked my eyes by using their fingers
3. to drag out the racism.
4. My tiny hands could not yet grasp the pain,
5. but I still managed to swallow it whole anyways.
6. That day at school, I learned my eyes were
7. not the standard of beauty society recognizes.
8. My skin, not the color white.
9. My name, nothing but a reason for me
10. to be last in line here.
11. It was never feeling my Chinese body fit
12. in an American setting.
13. I'm older when I'm at the dinner table.
14. My father turns to me and explains a joke he heard.
15. He says, I'm like a banana.
16. My mind curious, I asked, "Baba, what does that mean?"
17. He says, "Yellow on the outside, white on the inside."
18. Here, it was always feeling too American
19. to understand the Chinese in me.
20. Being a Chinese woman in America is looking
21. down the barrel of oppression for it to shoot model minority.
22. It's seeing the painful history
23. of Chinese women auctioned off
24. like property to white America,
25. knowing history is repeating itself in the city.
26. It's learning about the transcontinental railroad,
27. but not the ones who built it.
28. The sound of the hammers hitting the tracks play
29. in my head, chink.
30. Thousands of unrecorded deaths, chink.
31. Grand opening, Atlantic to the Pacific, chink.
32. The Chinese Exclusion Act, chink.
33. Alienization, chink.
34. Otherization and 150 years later, chink.
35. It's a little girl with yellow skin and small eyes
36. who never found the missing pages of her history textbooks
37. that would help her explain where this word comes from.
38. And suddenly, there's silence from America.
39. But America will take time to love their China-towns.
40. And as America walks down the streets
41. of San Francisco and Houston,
42. they will believe in the power of the food
43. and the old buildings,
44. but forget that their feet step on the same remnants
45. of hand-carved land Chinese migrants fought for to survive
46. in white America, being forgotten can feel so complacent.
47. But Chinese women know what it feels like to be forgotten.
48. Silenced, not just by America, but by our own culture too.
49. Chinese baby girl left on the footsteps of a hospital.
50. Chinese girl, be quiet at the dinner table.
51. Chinese object, take in all the Ling-Lings
52. and men with yellow fever.
53. Chinese woman, serve tea to the guests.
54. Chinese leftovers, marry before 24.
55. Chinese wife, be obedient to your husband.
56. Chinese daughter, learn your place in the household.
57. Chinese woman,
58. you are stronger than the gold
59. our people lost their lives searching for,
60. more resilient than the cities we built across this land.
61. Somewhere woven into the fabrics of our cheap house,
62. fossilized in the Jade we wear around our necks
63. and the red we paint across our lips are
64. the untold stories of the women who came before you,
65. who conquered their oppression and live inside of you
66. to grant you the strength to persevere.
67. To be Asian and American is to play a game of tug of war,
68. except you are the only player,
69. and as you fight with balancing identity,
70. sometimes the rope will fall on either side.
71. And there is no word right enough
72. to describe the pain of losing.
73. The loosening of the rope, the fall, the giving in.
74. But know that in this unique game,
75. you are also always winning.
76.
● Arabian poets
○ “We teach life, sir” by Rafeef Ziadah
○ Rafeef Ziadah - 'We teach life, sir', London, 12.11.11
○ https://blissonature.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/rafeef-
ziadah-we-teach-life-sir-text-transcription-lyrics-words-of-
poem/

1. Today my body was a TVd massacre

today
2. My body was a TVd massacre that had to
3. Fit into sound bites and word limits
4. Today my body was a TVd massacre that had
5. To fit into sound bites and word limits
6. filled enough with statistics the
7. counter measured response and I
8. perfected my English and I learned my UN
9. resolutions but still he asked me Ms. Ziadah
10. Don't you think everything would be
11. resolved if you would just stop teaching
12. so much hatred to your children pause I
13. look inside of me for strength to be
14. patient but patience is not at the tip
15. of my tongue as the bombs drop over *name of city*
16. patience has just escaped me pause
17. smile we teach life, sir Rafeef remember to
18. smile pause we teach life, sir we
19. Palestinians teach life after they have
20. occupied the last sky we teach life
21. after they have built their settlements
22. and apartheid walls after the last
23. skies we teach life, sir but today my
24. body was a TVd massacre made to fit
25. into sound bites and word limits and
26. “Just give us a story a human story you
27. see this is not political we just want
28. to tell people about you and your people
29. so give us a human story don't mention
30. that word apartheid and occupation
31. this is not political you have to help
32. me as a journalist to help you tell your
33. story which is not a political story.”
34. today my body was a TV domestic or “How
 35. about you give us the story of a woman
36. and as the who needs medication how
37. about you do you have enough bone broken
38. limbs to cover the Sun hand me over your
39. dead and give me the list of their names
40. in 1200 word limits” Today my body was a
41. TVd massacre made to fit into sound
42. bytes and word limits and move those
43. that are desensitized to terrorist blood
44. but they felt sorry they felt sorry for
45. the kettle over *name of city* so I give them
46. UN resolutions and statistics and we
47. condemn and we deplore and we reject and
48. these are not two equal sides occupier
49. and occupied and 100 dead 200 dead and a
50. thousand dead and between that war crime
51. and massacre I vent out words and smile
52. not exotic smile not terrorist and I
53. recount I recount a hundred dead 200
54. dead a thousand dead is anyone out there
55. will anyone listen I wish I could wail
56. over their bodies I wish I could just
57. run barefoot in every refugee camp and
58. hold every child cover their ears so
59. they wouldn't have to hear the sound of
60. bombing for the rest of their life the
61. way I do today my body was a TVd massacre
62. and let me just tell you there is
63. nothing your UN resolutions have ever
64. done about this and no sound bites no
65. sound bites I come up with no matter how
66. good my English gets no sound bite no
67. sound bite no sound bite no sound bite
68. will bring them back to life no sound
69. bite will fix this we teach life sir we
70. teach life sir we Palestinians wake up
71. every morning to teach the rest of the
72. world life, sir.
73.

Introduction:
● Hook the audience with a sentimental statement on the problems of racism these
communities face every day.
● Introduce the genre, slam poetry, and explain its power.
● Explain the communities more in-depth as to the issues they face every day,
hinting at similarities and differences.
 ● State thesis statement
○ State similarities and differences
■ Expression of racism
● Arab: Palestinian conflict
● Hispanic: Seeing seen as “other”
● Asian: Not appreciated, reduced to a foreign culture and
that is all
■ The imagery on problems in action
■ Taking text to spoken words to convey the right message
○ List reasons or one main phrase saying that it comes with similarities and
differences?*
Body P. 1 Similarity:
● Topic sentence: Similarities in dialogue
●
Body P. 2 Difference
● Topic sentence:
Body P. 3 Similarity:
● Topic sentence:
Body P. 4 Difference:
● Topic sentence:
Body P. 5 Similarity:
● Topic sentence:
Body P. 6 Difference:
● Topic sentence:

Conclusion:
● Restate thesis statement:

Brooklyn Nets:
Personal Information on players
Game scores
Overall Achievements
Sea-Hawks:
Personal information/promotion on players
Game scores
Personal/overall achievements
Club America:
Personal information/ promotion on players
Game scores
Personal/overall achievements