There's a poem by a black man, I think, describing talking to a landlady on the phone who wanted to know how black he was before agreeing to rent to him. It ends with him saying wouldn't it be simpler if he just came over?

Yeah, that is dealing with something less lighthearted, internal racism within the black community over lightness or darkness. And in fact Maya Angelou has dealt with that a lot. But this poem is trying to deal with all this just a physical description, describing skin tone for the same reasons you would describe hair color - so you would know what people look like.

interesting to me because gradations of hue, height and features played a predominant role in the social hierarchy of hispanic NM. And even that descriptor is challenged. Latino/mexican/hispanic. Depends on where you landed in history. Next door neighbors with a direct line to the gov and history back to the spaniards called themselves hispanic, as did most politically affiliated folk. Latino was those who'd gone more global, possibly even white, not locals, imports, intermarriages. Mexican was a shy away from derogatory, and there were further degrees in that.

It's fascinating and alarming at once.

Is it an outward express of classism, somehow? There aren't a lot of shades of white/pink/beige/pale, but boy howdy, there's the trailer trash and everyone else.

Gar, it's not Human Family is it? [link]

The one that I think is quite beautiful, but thematically totally different is Passing Time [link]

Both those poems are beautiful, but not the one I heard. Again it specifically listed ways to describe various skin shade. I wonder this was hers or if she was reading someone else's poem?

Yeah, I see a passing reference to both Angelou and a poem that could be that one in jstor, but I no longer have jstor access. Though I could check when i'm on campus tomorrow.

Oh if you would that would be very nice - if you have time. I mean obviously no medical consequences will happen if I never learn the name of the poem, but not knowing kind of - itches, if that makes sense.

Alice Walker writes poems, too...it could be something of hers. Unless you've confirmed it's Angelou of course.

Well I hear Angelou read it. But she read most her own poems on that interview, but some other people's too. So it was not neccessarily hers. Though I'm guessing if not her, someone not on the same level of famous.