The Race Industry

By Toti Burgio & Alejo Zubizarreta

By Benjamin Zephaniah

Benjamin Zephaniah• His poetry is strongly

influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls "street politics". His first performance was in church when he was eleven, and by the age of fifteen, his poetry was already known among  Afro-Carribean and Asian communities.He received a criminal record with the police as a young man and served a prison sentence for burglary.Tired of the limitations of being a black poet communicating with black people only, he decided to expand his audience, and headed to London at the age of twenty-two.

Poem• The Race Industry• The coconuts have got the jobs.

The race industry is a growth industry.We despairing, they careering.We want more peace they want more police.The Uncle Toms are getting paid.The race industry is a growth industry.We say sisters and brothers don't fear.They will do anything for the Mayor.The coconuts have got the jobs.The race industry is a growth industry.They're looking for victims and poets to rent.They represent me without my consent.The Uncle Toms are getting paid.The race industry is a growth industry.In suits they dither in fear of anarchy.They take our sufferings and earn a salary.Steal our souls and make their documentaries.Inform daily on our community.Without Black suffering they'd have no jobs.Without our dead they'd have no office.Without our tears they'd have no drink.If they stopped sucking we could get justice. The coconuts are getting paid.Men, women and Brixton are being betrayed. 

Analysis

•This poem talks about how the unjust system and how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. “the uncle toms are getting paid”“We despairing, they careering” This shows how a group of people (whites) are prospering while another group is not.

•“ They represent me without my consent.” this means that they are generalizing the black community and someone is representing who Benjamin (the black community) is.

•“Without Black suffering they'd have no jobs.Without our dead they'd have no office.Without our tears they'd have no drink.” This quote means that the rich couldn’t be where they are without the poor, and again shows how unfair the system is.