“Were you educated? We mean, of course, where were you educated?”
This kind of question shows how the interviewer does not yet know the interviewee, but they have already judged them. Also, the formal language is used to disguise the interviewers discrimination, but this devise only makes the language seem humorous.
‘This work involves contact with the actual public. Might they find your appearance disturbing?’
This sentence is not intended to be humorous, but the fact a question so blatantly rude was asked during an interview makes you laugh. The interviewer, after they have asked a question becomes defensive and says ‘it’s not me saying this, it’s the company.
‘We are conscience ourselves…’
This shows how the interviewer refuses to take responsibility for their actions. In contrast, the discrimination in ‘Telephone Conversation’ is direct and the woman being prejudice obviously doesn’t care enough to know that this is extremely insulting. As you can hear the applicant in this poem, his replies may be predictable. However, he tries to be pleasant to the woman when answering questions, but as her questions become more insulting, the man retaliates by referring to his bottom (in front of a lady this is considered rude.)
‘By sitting down, has turned my bottom raven black!’
This ‘outburst’ shows how he is not ashamed of his skin colour and is prepared to defend his rights by any means possible. There are many references to colour in this poem, both in symbolism and in describing. One example was when red was used to describe the applicant’s anger as the woman asked ‘how black he was.’
‘Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double tiered omnibus squelching tar.’
This show how the mans anger makes him seem suddenly aware of his surrounding area, focussing on the colour red. He later refers to sepia, peroxide blonde, brunette and raven black. The effect of this is that it shows how one subject can be brought out in many other, different subjects. It also shows contrasts in appearance:
‘Peroxide blonde’
‘Brunette’
These are two of the most common contrasting subjects, normally referring to hair colour, but not necessarily in this context.
‘Telephone Conversation’ is set out in one large stanza, showing an on-going conversation. Whereas in ‘You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly’ there are many stanzas (six) showing pauses for response from the interviewee, then one or two words from the interviewer showing their approval or disapproval.
‘Quite so.’
This short sentence shows how the interviewer does not necessarily agree with the interviewee, but hides their disapproval. The stanzas are mainly made up of questions and short comments, all from the interviewer. In this way, the two poems are again different, as in ‘Telephone Conversation’ the sentences are quite long.
In ‘Telephone Conversation’ the woman is direct with the racial problem:
“HOW DARK? ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?
Thus showing that she didn’t camouflage it, she came straight out with it and didn’t feel bad or guilty saying it. The tone of voice in which this is said is a patronising and very menacing tone. This is because we learn from her dialogue that she is a straightforward person who doesn’t mind telling people what she wants and when she wants it. In the poem, she wants to know how light or how dark the man is and she doesn’t want him to hold back on the description. She also compares the question about skin colour to an everyday household product:
‘Like plain or milk chocolate?’
Thus showing her approach to the problem, which is a very casual approach, showing her lack of ‘tact’ in her manner to others. Also, the simplification of the question shows that she thinks the man is of a lower standard and is perhaps not as smart as she herself is.
The mans dialogue tells us that he was ready to be refused the apartment as he is black, but wasn’t prepared for her to be straight with him about it.
Overall, the poems are very different, however, they portray two very similar messages. They both show how discrimination takes place in everyday society, and it’s not necessarily being hidden from the world. ‘Telephone Conversation’ deals with discrimination directly, whereas ‘You Will Be Hearing From Us Shortly’ deals with discrimination indirectly, therefore they both show different scenarios where personal appearance is essential to some people.
