For this human whose fetal ontology was pure promise, is now, as a black child, pure threat. Moreover, once this child is born, it will face a disproportionate level of environmental toxins, crushing poverty, malnutrition, as well as hyper-exposure to state violence. Of course, if this fetus gestates in one of America’s ghettos, where quality food and prenatal care is scarce, then it is already a victim of structural violence inflicted by all of us. One is hard-pressed to find a more degraded character than the pregnant drug user, for the unborn child is commonly understood to symbolize innocent potential, purity, a form of life undeserving of the terrible pain we inflict on one another outside the womb. To humanize someone is not to justify their behavior, but to restore a sense of connection within human community, between those of us deemed valuable and those of us deemed worthless or counted as among the lost. 1,” Andre chooses to humanize a figure universally degraded in the mass media and in political commentary: the pregnant drug user. As I prepare to teach some of their songs, I am struck again by their uniqueness, lyrical economy, and, for lack of a better term, genius. Literature is at its best when it humanizes its characters and, by extension, its readers. The poetry of the duo Outkast, comprised of Big Boi and Andre 3000, peels back the distorted surfaces of stories our society tells itself about urban tragedies. Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.Developmental Editing Fellowship for Emerging Writers.The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers.

Sasha thumper