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White Comedy

The poem "White Comedy" by Benjamin Zephaniah substitutes the word "white" for "black" throughout to show how language plays a role in racism. Words originally associated with black people often had negative meanings, while words associated with white people were usually positive. By reversing this, the poem highlights how Western culture has negatively connoted the black community through language usage. At the end, "black" replaces "white," symbolizing a reversal of power and deprivation typically experienced by the black community. The unfamiliar word substitutions are meant to express that racism grows through language and future words must not negatively target particular races.

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Vanya Danyella Barachita
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2K views2 pages

White Comedy

The poem "White Comedy" by Benjamin Zephaniah substitutes the word "white" for "black" throughout to show how language plays a role in racism. Words originally associated with black people often had negative meanings, while words associated with white people were usually positive. By reversing this, the poem highlights how Western culture has negatively connoted the black community through language usage. At the end, "black" replaces "white," symbolizing a reversal of power and deprivation typically experienced by the black community. The unfamiliar word substitutions are meant to express that racism grows through language and future words must not negatively target particular races.

Uploaded by

Vanya Danyella Barachita
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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  • The Use of Substitution in 'White Comedy': Examines how racial themes are explored through substitution within 'White Comedy', focusing on language and societal implications.
  • Continuation of Analysis on 'White Comedy': Continues the analytical look at 'White Comedy' with an emphasis on racial language reversal and its broader implications.

“The Use of Substitution in ‘White Comedy’”

With George Floyd’s inhumane death rekindling the #BlackLivesMatter protest, a lot of
people have been spreading awareness about the racism being experienced by the black
community, particularly in the United States of America. Benjamin Zephaniah, an African poet,
talked about this topic in one of his poems “White Comedy,” where he repeatedly used the word
‘white’ to show that how language portrays a big role in racism and how it would be like when
the tables turn.

The title of the poem, “White Comedy,” substitutes the word ‘black’ with ‘white.’ Black
comedy actually refers to a style of comedy used to lightly talk about dark and taboo topics.
Throughout his poem, he continuously used this method as a way for people to understand his
point.
Whitelisted as a whiteleg
I waz in de white book
As a master of white art,
It waz like white death.
(Zephaniah 9-12)
If one were to look at the original terms, all of them have negative meanings. The word
“blacklisted” is being excluded or avoided and deemed as unacceptable. Black book is a list of
people who will be punished. Black art is another word for black magic, use of supernatural
powers for evil and selfish purposes, while the Black Death is the most fatal plague in the
European history, with almost a third of the population dead. However, in the 20 words with the
word ‘white’ in it, only one had wasn’t substituted. In line 4, he states “An white lies”
(Zephaniah 4). White lies are considered as harmless or trivial lies that can be acceptably
committed by anyone. Many of the ‘white’ words actually exist. Line 2 states, “By a white
witch” (Zephaniah 2). However, unlike its black counterpart, it has a good meaning. A white
witch is someone who uses supernatural powers for selfless reasons whereas a black witch uses it
for selfish reasons. This shows that the Western culture has been putting a negative connotation
on the black community by acquainting them with negative words and the whites with positive
ones.

At the end of the poem, the word ‘black’ first appears in replacement of the word ‘white.’
Don’t worry,
I shall be writing to de Black House
(Zephaniah 20-21)
White House is where the president of the U.S.A. officially resides. Though the origin of its
name come from the building’s color and has nothing to do with racism, it still continues to be a
symbol of power and leadership – something the black community have been deprived of. In this
poem, however, circumstances are reversed, and the power is with them.

The reversal of roles not just in the last line but in the entire poem gives unfamiliarity to
the readers. They expect to see words in its original form but is given their color counterpart.
Zephaniah used this style to express the importance of creating words without letting a
community suffer because of it. Racism grows because of language, and if future words will
continue to be negatively associated to particular races, this fight won’t stop.

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