Discuss how the poet Nicolas Guillen conveys his feelings about prejudice and stereotyping in his poem ' A soul as black as coal '.

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               Jack Best.

                                                                                                           

      Discuss how the poet Nicolas Guillen conveys his feelings

      about prejudice and stereotyping in his poem ‘ A soul as black as coal ‘.

In ‘ A soul as black as coal ‘ (ASABAC), the Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen uses a poem by ‘ a Soviet poet ‘ as a platform to express his views about prejudice and stereotyping of black people by, presumably, white, or at least ‘ non-black ‘ people. Guillen begins ASABAC by referring to the ‘assassination ‘ of the ‘ black civil rights leader ‘ Martin Luther King. The use of the word ‘ assassination ‘ is evocative. The feeling evoked by its use at the start of ASABAC, at an almost sub-conscious level, is that the death of King was much more than a ‘ mere murder ‘ to Guillen. Ordinary ‘ folk ‘ are murdered, but use of the word ‘ assassination ‘ is more usually associated with the unlawful killing of a President or royalty.

It was less than clear to me why Guillen chose to begin ASABAC with this bold statement about the death of Martin Luther King. At one level, I think that the ‘ key ‘ to a deeper, more accurate, understanding of   ‘ why ‘ he did so lies in the life and ‘ teachings ‘ of the ‘ black civil rights leader ‘. King, famously, had ‘ a dream ‘. His dream was of a world in which all men would be regarded as ‘ equal ‘; where the colour of a man’s skin was of no relevance to his worth, or standing, in society.

Although slavery had long since been abolished during King’s lifetime, he argued that in order for black people to be truly ‘ free ‘, the ‘ invisible chains ‘ of prejudice had to be forcibly removed by new anti-discrimination laws that would provide a ‘ platform ‘ from which to develop a truly ‘ free ‘ society for all. What King, described as the ‘ heroic pastor ‘, by Guillen, ‘ preached ‘ in the 1960`s about prejudice and negative stereotyping of black people by white people led to an increase in ‘ consciousness ‘ amongst both black and white alike. Civil rights ‘protests ‘ and ‘ resistance ‘ during King’s lifetime, and after his death, saw great progress in American society with the removal of discriminatory laws, but Guillen`s own ‘ focus ‘ in ASABAC is on less ‘ obvious ‘, but equally harmful, forms of ‘ prejudice ‘ and negative ‘ stereotyping of black people. Put simply, his ‘ message ‘ to the reader appears to be that removing ‘ bad laws ‘ was a necessary, but not sufficient step, towards creating a world in which King’s dream could be said to have come true.

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Guillen quotes the beginning of Yevtushenko`s poem about King ‘ His skin was black /but with the purest soul,/white as the snow…’ before the ‘ black poet ‘ replies with his own ‘ summary ‘ of what ‘ they ‘ said about King. It seems clear that the use of the word ‘ they ‘ was intended as a description of, or              ‘ shorthand ‘ for, sections of  ‘ white ‘ (or ‘non-black ‘) society. Firstly,‘ they ‘ appear to refer positively to the ‘ white soul ‘ of the ‘ noble preacher ...

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