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America Is Killing Us Poem Analysis

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Sonia Sanchez(1934–) is a world-class poet, playwright, educator, and novelist of international renown. During a career that has spanned over 40 years, Sanchez has lectured and taught at over 50 colleges both in the United States and abroad. She has written over a dozen books of poetry, eight plays, and several novels. Born in Birmingham, AL, Sanchez graduated from Hunter College in 1955 and did postgraduate work at New York University. Like many others, she found herself swept up in the civil rights fervor of the 1960s.1 In Sanchez’s view, writing and political activism were interconnected. She first thought that the blacks were able, and it was necessary for them, to assimilate themselves into white …show more content…

But we continue to live and love and struggle and win. I draw on my experience or image to clarify and magnify this truth for those who must ultimately be changing the world; not for critics or librarians.11

“America is killing us” is the kernel statement made by Sonia Sanchez. It denotes her cultural awareness of the ever-present white marginalization of the black race. The perennial aim she keeps in mind is to bring home the fact that the black national feelings must be painstakingly aroused in order to establish a black-specific identity and nation. Like the poet, the dramatist must be “a creator of social values.” 12 Telling the truth by the medium of writing is seen as one of the essential requirements to achieve this task of creating a system of social beliefs and values. For Sanchez, writing supports her concerted efforts to continue her search for the black identity and the realization of this long-awaited dream, strongly affirming her eternal message that “I keep writing because I realize that until Black people’s social reality is free of oppression and exploitation, I will not be free to write as one who’s not oppressed or

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