"homecoming" by Sonia Sanchez

Sonia Sanchez wrote during the Black Arts Movement, and one of the philosophies of that movement was that two worlds existed--one world which Whites inhabited, and a second world which Blacks inhabited. “homecoming” addresses those two worlds and the two perspectives people have when they try to live in both worlds.

We can begin our exploration of the poem by looking at it before we read it. One of the first things we notice about the poem is that it uses nonstandard American English. Even the title of the poem is not capitalized, and we can see that there is very little punctuation within the poem. As well, line 1 shows us that I is not capitalized. The Black Arts Movement encouraged writers to reject all things White, and so it’s likely that Sanchez’s use of nonstandard English was a way of rejecting the White power structure which decides how words will be spelled and capitalized.

As we read the poem, one of the things we want to ask ourselves is “Who is speaking?” Of course, we never want to assume that the poet is the speaker. Rather, we must assume that the speaker is a creation of the poet. So, what can we say about the speaker? First, we know she is a woman. Line 16 says, “now woman.” We also know that she is college educated, based on line 3. And we know that she is Black. We can also guess that she is older than 22 since college is a thing of the past for her.

So next, we want to figure out, “What’s going on in this poem?” This is actually a somewhat narrative poem. The speaker is in the present but reflecting upon her experiences and is sharing with us the story of her awakening. She tells the story of two visits home, the second of which taught her an important lesson which is the message of the poem. The overall message of the poem seems to be that we should not judge who we are and where we live based on an external yardstick. Instead, we should strive to appreciate our own culture.

One of the things the poet wants us to think about is how we know what we know. White culture values “book” education (college). It also values the written word, such as the newspapers referred to in the last line of the poem. As such, many Black people have adopted that same value and believe that the only worthwhile knowledge is what is written in books and taught at college. Historically speaking, however, Black culture has valued nontraditional ways of knowing. A Black woman might walk outside, look at the sky, and say, “It’s going to rain. I better go back and get my umbrella.” She doesn’t need a meteorologist to tell her this. She just knows. Likewise, a Black man might say, “My palm itches. I’m gonna get some money soon.” What White culture dismisses as superstition, Black culture is more accepting of. However, some Black people believe that in order to “get ahead” or to put it another way, in order to achieve the American dream, they must abandon Black cultural values and adopt White ones. This is what the speaker did when she went to college. Have you ever known someone who went to college and came back home a completely different person—in a negative way? In some ways, the speaker is saying that college turns one into a “tourist” (line 4). A college student absorbs “book” knowledge and becomes an outsider to his own culture. The college student can no longer understand his or her culture but rather looks at the culture through the eyes of an outsider, the eyes of a tourist. In doing so, that Black college student becomes judgmental and negative because he or she is seeing through the eyes of a White person. During that first visit, the speaker even adopts the language of White culture and refers to “niggers” (line 6).

Can you relate to this concept? Can you think of something or someone that you saw through an outsider’s eyes and felt ashamed about? Perhaps you love your grandmother dearly but when you think of taking her to the mall, you think about her mismatched blouse and skirt and old fashioned shoes, and you decide not to take her out. You’re concerned about what people will think when they see her dressed this way. Maybe at church you hoop and shout but if you brought a co-worker of another race to your church, you might be a bit quieter. Or perhaps you have heard outsiders (the media, students at other schools, even high school teachers) say that MATC is an “easy” school, and you believed it (until you took this course, that is!) This is what Sanchez is writing about in the first stanza, the experience of seeing your world through someone else’s eyes and feeling shame.

By the middle of the poem, the speaker has experienced a change. She says she returned home as a “woman” (line 16) capable of seeing through her own eyes. She has left behind her aspirations of assimilating into White culture. She has left behind the double consciousness and the “hide and/seek” (lines 19-20) experience of being one person when she is with Whites and being a different person when she is with Blacks. Now, she is an insider again and she can see the beauty of her culture. She’s learned that “ it/ ain’t like they say/ in the newspapers” (lines 27-9). Notice the pronoun “they.” At first, the speaker herself was a “they,” an outsider. Now, enlightened, she understands that she is part of her Black community. She realizes that as long as she feels hate and shame for other Blacks, she is really hating and feeling ashamed of herself because black beauty is her beauty (line 25). Conversely, black shame is her shame.

You should also notice that the speaker uses the word “nigger” again in reference to this second visit. But this time, the word is not used in a negative way. This is the debate of the 21st century—about how Whites use the word and how Blacks do. This time, she is using it the way Black people do.

In conclusion, Sanchez wants us to question the judgments and assumptions we make. She wants Black people to think about the ways in which they have become outsiders to their culture, the ways in which they have accepted White views about what is beautiful, or what is right, or what is normal. She wants us to know that just because it is written somewhere doesn’t make it true or right. In the end, she wants all Black people to have a homecoming, a point at which they realize the beauty within their own culture and they stop trying to emulate White culture.

If you are African American, have you had your own personal homecoming about Black culture? What precipitated it? Second, in what ways have you rejected your culture and adopted White values—whether it is in the color of your hair, the texture of your hair, the color of your contact lenses, the neighborhood you live in or feel safe in, etc.