The United States Welcomes You

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

At first glance, “The United States Welcomes You” appears to be a sonnet. It has some qualities of a sonnet: 14 lines with 10 syllables (or close to 10 syllables) apiece. The sonnet is a form first popularized by Francesco Petrarch during the Italian Renaissance. His sonnets are known for their unrequited (one-sided) love: His beloved, Laura, did not return his affections. Translations of Petrarch made the sonnet popular in England, where William Shakespeare famously used the poetic form, but altered it to fit his own needs. Shakespeare’s sonnets were about his love for a young man and a dark lady. However, sonnets have been used to talk about subjects other than romantic love. For instance, the sonnet “Saint Judas,” by James Wright, published in the 1950s, examines the Biblical figures Judas and Jesus.

Many African American poets assumed the traditionally white sonnet form. Some famous 20th century Black sonneteers include Claude McKay and Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks, like Tracy K. Smith, breaks some of the sonnet rules, like abandoning strict rhyme schemes. Smith's contemporary Terrance Hayes’s American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, was published in 2017.

Historical Context

“The United States Welcomes You” was published while Tracy K. Smith was Poet Laureate of the United States, between 2017-19. 2017 and 2018 were historic in terms of oppressive immigration laws and activities. In January of 2017, former president Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries--explicitly described as a “Muslim Ban” by the White House--went into effect. The wording of the order describes terrorist threats and public security risks from the countries it lists, despite lack of evidence for terrorism resulting from immigration or travel from these countries.

A few months later, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia saw intense white supremacist activity resulting in severe injury and murder. Many of the rallying cries of the participants revolved around fears of minority races demographically overtaking white people. “The United States Welcomes You” indirectly alludes to these claims in its title. During this time period--and throughout its history-- the United States categorically was not welcoming many people from other countries. Additionally, the statement that the title makes can also be applied to Muslim, Black, and other American residents of color, who are “welcomed” as guests, and not Americans because they lack the fundamental "American" quality of whiteness described by the white supremacists.

Philosophical Context

The poem bears a strong resemblance to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic. Hegel was an anthropologist who occasionally published in philosophy, yet was and is extremely influential in the latter field. Dialectics are combinations of two ideas or phenomena that contradict each other, but combine into a greater definition or concept. In the case of the Master-Slave dialectic, Hegel proposes that consciousness is self-justifying (exists to itself without external verification), and that two consciousnesses meeting will struggle to determine dominance. The dominant consciousness becomes the master, while the subservient consciousness becomes the slave. However, the slave is able to continue exhibiting their consciousness through productive work, but the master is only able to exhibit their consciousness through recognition of the slave. In this manner, Hegel proposes that the master, though dominant, becomes terrified of the slave’s ability to exist without recognition.

In Smith’s poem, the interrogator takes on the role of Hegel’s master and the suspect takes on the role of Hegel’s slave in the dialectic. The final lines of the poem focus on the master's fear. The interrogator, despite presumably having all the power, becomes afraid of the possibility of a counter-interrogation by their detainee. The existence of the person over whom they have power is irrationally terrifying.