As an educator and a former social worker, I know how easy it can be to slip into othering and judgment even when you are trying to be understanding, compassionate, and helpful. The language of supremacy culture can sound matter-of-fact, or intelligent, or even polite. What voice do you hear as you read this poem?
Elliptical, by Harryette Mullen
According to Oxford Languages, elliptical describes “using or involving ellipsis, especially so as to be difficult to understand” and ellipsis is “the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.” This poet brilliantly uses the title and the related punctuation to call attention to the intentionality—even if that intentionality is subconsciously driven by systems and institutions—behind words that can perhaps at first seem innocent. What words are omitted and what are the contextual clues? What is being made difficult to understand that could be more blatantly stated?
The final line of the poem emphasizes that our thinking and our language have consequences, impacting how we interact in relationship (and much more). The word unfortunately, however, relieves the speaker of accountability and puts the responsibility for whatever has gone wrong on the referenced other.
This poem brings our awareness not just to individual language but to the dominant paradigm of separateness and other which is so ubiquitous as to go unnoticed by most. This is exactly why DEI and other efforts to educate about whiteness, privilege, and all types of supremacy thinking are so necessary…and so threatening to those with power.
May unitive consciousness prevail.
Love,
M
Learn more about Harryette Mullen.