Title: 10 Poems about Racism and Discrimination | Human Rights Careers
Headings: 10 Poems about Racism and Discrimination
10 Poems about Racism and Discrimination
“Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou
“Rosa” by Rita Dove
“Tradition” by Jericho Brown
“White Privilege” by Gabriel Rameriz
“I Am Not The Indian You Had In Mind” by Thomas King
“Immigrant Blues” by Li-Young Lee
“Riot” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall
“Afterimages” by Audre Lorde
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes

Content: In this poem, King contrasts the stereotypes of indigenous people seen in culture and how they actually live in modern Canada. Vivid, conversational, and threaded with anger, it’s a powerful indictment of racist stereotypes. “Immigrant Blues” by Li-Young Lee
In this poem, Asian-American poet Li-Young Lee explores the different stories within the immigrant experience. These stories have titles like “Survival Strategies and the Melancholy of Racial Assimilation” and “Patterns of Love in Peoples of Diaspora.” These different titles represent the complexity of immigration and how immigrants wrestle with many identities. For this reason, the poem is multi-layered and difficult. That’s the point, however. Issues of immigration and identity should be challenging. “Riot” by Gwendolyn Brooks
The first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poems explore the African-American experience, identity, politics, and other issues. “ Riot” paints a picture of the riots in Chicago after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.