The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to Be Bilingual

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Tokenism

In the first stanza of Limón’s “The Contract Says…,” the speaker blatantly suggests that the author should “bring [their] brown- / ness so we can be sure to please // the funders” (Lines 1-3). This assertion establishes the practice of racial tokenism—the perfunctory effort to be inclusive to minority groups within an institution—as commonplace within the publishing industry.

Limón is critical of the fact that tokenism is simply inclusion for the sake of inclusion, a means of reaching a particular quota. Limón is particularly concerned with publishers making only a symbolic effort to share the stories of people of color, showing the world a façade of open mindedness, forward thinking, and diversity without actually changing the existing power dynamics within their institution. Limón uses irony and wit (see: Poem Analysis) to expose how visibility does not equate to accurate representation. The speaker of the poem asks invasive questions about the author’s background, crafting an assumed narrative of what minority life looks like, and thus, rendering the author of color powerless. Limón argues that authors of color are not a monolith; that they have opinions and experiences beyond that of their cultural or ethnic background. The theme of racial tokenism reveals that the standards of whiteness still control the literary canon, flattening the experiences of minority groups and further suppressing their voices within the wider poetic discourse.

Limón grapples with the issue of misrepresentation and visibility that has occurred for decades across all types of literature. Characters like Cho Chang and Kingsley Shacklebolt in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are extremely flat characters, relying on the racist stereotypes of the docile Chinese woman and strong, enslaved Black man to feign diversity and inclusion. Rowling is a white author, and thus, these harmful stereotypes go unquestioned by the majority of readers and critics because of the long-held notion that whiteness equals authority. Limón subverts this notion through her exploration of tokenism as it pertains to her own identity as a Latinx writer, giving readers a glimpse into the publishing world through the eyes of a woman of color.

White Guilt

Limón shows the direct correlation between racial tokenism and white guilt throughout her poem. The term “white guilt” was first used by author and scholar James Baldwin in his essay “The White Man’s Guilt” (1965). “White guilt” refers to the discomfort a white person experiences when faced with discussions about racial inequality and injustice. Limón exposes how the white hegemony, or the people in power, use tokenism as a way to quell their own feelings of guilt and shame, knowing that the representation of stories of color is still severely lacking within the literary community, while doing little to nothing to change that fact. Publishers ask writers of color if they “will tell us stories that make / us uncomfortable, but not complicit” (Lines 9-10), patting themselves on the back for their bare minimum inclusion efforts. Limón exposes that white people in the United States have protection from racial stress, a privilege that writers of color like herself are not afforded. The complexity of the theme of white guilt exemplifies just how difficult it is to untangle the roots of racism within American society. Limón uses “The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to be Bilingual” as a discussion ground for issues of racial inequality, contending that, without the help of white allies, the pattern of racial tokenism will never be broken. Limón uses the theme of white guilt to unsettle readers, pushing them to take practical action and fight against racism in every institution.

Intersectionality

Scholar and writer Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in her seminal essay “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Crenshaw defines intersectionality as the complex, cumulative way in which discrimination disadvantages individuals with multiple minority identities. Her essay expounds feminist and critical race theories, examining how sexism, racism, and classism combine, overlap, and intersect.

Crenshaw’s primary example of intersectional politics centers the Black woman. However, she asserts that, because intersectionality is a lens, it can be mapped onto any number of intersecting experiences. The theme of intersectionality sheds necessary light on Limón’s position as a Mexican American female writer, exposing how each discrete part of her identity must be thought of cumulatively to fully understand the complexities of her lived experience. Limón’s tongue-in-cheek verse shows how dull stories become when they only contain one aspect of a person’s life.