"xenophobe" poems - Hello Poetry

I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of but I can't be tied to those forever so people forgive and forget I try to forget but still feel bad and I know there are still sore subjects that I should be sensitive about. Scrolling through Reddit I see a post of Māori students at an airport greeting their returning teacher with a traditional Māori war dance which was an admittedly sweet gesture but something didn't sit right with me. I wondered why the students greeting their teacher had to do so through a display of militaristic nationalism I wondered if that was the last dance the Moriori people saw before the Māori genocided them for their resources I wondered if the Māori danced like that as they ***** murdered, and cannibalized the Moriori. Wondering all of this made me ask myself: Why did they have to greet their teacher like that? The students wanted to make a big gesture which dancing is perfect for but dancing can also be vulnerable and embarrassing because people may mock how you express yourself but strangers at the airport are less likely to laugh at you if you're doing a synchronized dance with a group of people and the dancing is recognizably tied to national identity because then it's a culturally rich dance you're a xenophobe for laughing at and that's what nationalism is: strength in numbers and a readymade identity in lieu of an individual personality oftentimes for the sake of pistanthrophobia. So as I read the circlejerking comments on the post I wondered what the difference is between a Māori war dance and a **** salute I guess the Māori people have experienced more oppression than Nazis but nationalism is nationalism and those who have oppressed are oppressors and many who are oppressed would gladly be oppressors given the chance. Nationalism isn't healthy for culture and often isolates people from other cultures that are all combining due to globalization which people fight to preserve their little dances and costumes so we can stay in eternal conflict over delusions of supremacy when the only nationality should be a global one.

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Aug 28, 2022

Aug 28, 2022 at 8:41 PM UTC

andrew-rueter

Nationalism

I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of but I can't be tied to those forever so people forgive and forget I try to forget but still feel bad and I know there are still sore subjects that I should be sensitive about. Scrolling through Reddit I see a post of Māori students at an airport greeting their returning teacher with a traditional Māori war dance which was an admittedly sweet gesture but something didn't sit right with me. I wondered why the students greeting their teacher had to do so through a display of militaristic nationalism I wondered if that was the last dance the Moriori people saw before the Māori genocided them for their resources I wondered if the Māori danced like that as they ***** murdered, and cannibalized the Moriori. Wondering all of this made me ask myself: Why did they have to greet their teacher like that? The students wanted to make a big gesture which dancing is perfect for but dancing can also be vulnerable and embarrassing because people may mock how you express yourself but strangers at the airport are less likely to laugh at you if you're doing a synchronized dance with a group of people and the dancing is recognizably tied to national identity because then it's a culturally rich dance you're a xenophobe for laughing at and that's what nationalism is: strength in numbers and a readymade identity in lieu of an individual personality oftentimes for the sake of pistanthrophobia. So as I read the circlejerking comments on the post I wondered what the difference is between a Māori war dance and a **** salute I guess the Māori people have experienced more oppression than Nazis but nationalism is nationalism and those who have oppressed are oppressors and many who are oppressed would gladly be oppressors given the chance. Nationalism isn't healthy for culture and often isolates people from other cultures that are all combining due to globalization which people fight to preserve their little dances and costumes so we can stay in eternal conflict over delusions of supremacy when the only nationality should be a global one.