18 pages • 36 minutes read
Harryette MullenWe Are Not Responsible
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Luggage
Mullen both implies and directly uses the symbol of luggage several times in “We Are Not Responsible.” Luggage is replaced with “relatives” in Line 1 and “carrying on” in Line 6. These replacements speak to how Black people’s enslaved “relatives” (Line 1) were treated as possessions—like luggage. This history created generational trauma carried like luggage, also referred to as emotional baggage. “[C]arrying on” (Line 6) is a way to dismiss legitimate emotional responses to trauma. The negative characterization of emotional responses to trauma is a method that systems of power use to not take responsibility for their institution that created the trauma.
The word “luggage” reappears in Line 11: “Our handlers lost your luggage.” This develops the discussion of the emotional baggage carried by descendants of slaves. The relatives of many Black Americans lost their lives because of violence perpetrated by “handlers,” or overseers on plantations, or lost their lives fleeing slavery. The system—the speaker, the “we” and “our” of the poem—continually refuses to take responsibility for empowering overseers, slave owners, and, later, the police.
Color
Mullen uses implied colors in her poem. In Line 16, she writes “gang color.” Gang colors in America typically refer to red and blue clothing and accessories worn by the Bloods and the Crips, respectively. Police cite wearing these colors as a reason to harass and kill young Black men. However, the colors red and blue are not the colors for which the police are targeting—they are judging young men based on their skin color. Law enforcement believes the “gang color” (Line 16) is Blackness, or the deep brown skin of the descendants of slaves. Mullen’s use of implied or unnamed colors shows how a system of power—law enforcement—uses symbolic coloring to veil its racism.
Contractual Language
Mullen uses a motif of contractual language—the language employed when discussing legal matters, further reinforcing the form of the poem. Mullen repeats the words “right” or “rights” three times. This emphasizes how systemic racism dehumanizes individuals by violating their civil rights. The poem’s speaker reserves their “right to refuse service” (Line 4); this “service,” in fact, turns out to be civil liberties. Rights are denied to those who are othered by the system; the “you” of the poem is denied being informed of their “rights” in Line 17, and has “no rights” that the “we” of the poem is “bound to respect” in Line 19. The overall contractual (detached or cold) tone of the poem’s diction illustrates that it is a system violating another system: racism violating individual rights.
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