Late Book Review One: 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery'

The book looked cool. . . A thin, tall, and bald woman on the cover and spray paint cursive over head: Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery. I'm not one to write about racism, but I like reading about it. I'm not one of those people who walk up and down exclaiming, "Racism doesn't exist anymore" or "We have an African American president so we can't be racist" types. I'm not the type to think EVERY god damn thing said or done to me IS racist. I say shit like that jokingly to REAL CLOSE friends (friends who know WHEN AND WHERE). I also talk about racism to make people feel awkward, so if I randomly said, "You're racist" or something to that degree I probably didn't want to talk to you. The point of this digression is it resembles the movement racism, sexism, and homophobia has undergone. Our perception about racism and the face behind the current masks' of racism, and all the other 'isms' have altered into subtleties and humor, so I believe that this is the message of Pamela Sneed's 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery.'

I couldn't put my finger on it before, but after seeing SaltLines I figured out why this book review was hard for me to write. Pamela Sneed's book does not progress. She's in this constant state of anger, which is understandable considering she's:

A. A woman
B. African American
C. A Lesbian

so the odds are against her. But, especially when you're writing lyrically the book almost becomes a very poetic, very short memoir, she continues from angry to angry. . . maybe her anger simmers. In her one poem about "Daddy" (daddy can be interrupted in two ways from my gathering AMERICA or her actual father) the poem should have been a series of curses. It's funny I stopped thinking about the book review until I saw SaltLines because there was a poem about a Daddy and the poet was a lesbian. . . But you see instead of rambling in undertoned curse words as Pamela Sneed did. . . The SaltLines' girl said, "Yes I am angry at you. . . I even hate you at times, but you know what the past is the past and I forgive you." Maybe it's bad for me to compare, but I can't help it.