The Great Pax Whitie

The Great Pax Whitie

CC: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177829

Giovanni expresses the evolutionary of the oppressor always creating the war and oppressing people of color by highlighting historical events of war and biblical phrases. Giovanni uses the book of genesis to open with The Great Pax White. “The book of Genesis” was the explanation, creation and origin of life. The Book of genesis reflects a narration of God who says that he is the creator of life and appoints man and woman to his substitute. Later in the narration, man and woman show naughtiness and defiance and later God destroys the world. It represents destruction and darkness by not following God’s way of life. Giovanni uses repetition of “peace be still” to always say even though the wars and the destruction of the people killed the people of culture, pride and land, peace be still. When Jesus sailed with his disciples and the storm happened and everyone feared the storm, Jesus said “peace be still”. Essentially, through the storm of life, no matter how horrible, you must never ever give up because one day one will be free. Peace is within if you can connect to the higher power of the mist of the storm of struggle. Giovanni uses the painting of the Black Madonna to describe the Virgin Mary is because in historical and biblical content, she is described for representing the strong, black and maternal woman. The painting also has a golden ring around her and Jesus. Because she gave birth to Christ, she represents golden, pure, wisdom and prosperity. Giovanni uses various historical events like the Carthaginians and the Moors to create the imagery of war, oppression and destruction to highlight a revolution and the emotion behind a war. The Carthaginians were from North Africa and fought Rome in the Punic Wars. The war was for territory and economy. In the end, the Romans killed the Africans and colonized them. They took all of their resources and stripped them of their culture, pride and land. The Moors were North African who migrated to Italy. The term Moor came from Europe for people who were Arab or African descent. Giovanni writes about major wars fought against Africans and the Europeans to discuss the struggle of the Africans for freedom and land. Giovanni says, “The great emancipator was a bigot ain’t they got no shame” to discuss how and why Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Even though the goal was to free the slaves, another argument was that the Proclamation did not cover all the slaves. In the end, the Proclamation ended slavery, but did not promise equal rights for African- Americans. Lastly, she alludes to the murders of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy and Malcolm X by stating, “So the great white prince, Was shot like a nigger in texas / And our Black, shining prince was murdered /Like that thug in his cathedral /While our nigger in memphis /Was shot like their prince in dallas.” The importance of this poem is to highlight that even though the massacres of the blacks were caused by The Great Pax of the White people, peace be still and know that liberation and life will one day come.