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: 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. The character observing the riots in the poem is John Cabot. A white man with privilege, he is horrified by what he calls “It,” or “the blackness.” He embodies the racist system that can drive people to riot. “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall
In 1963, an African-American church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. Four little black girls were killed.