Danez Smith’s anthology Don’t Call Us Dead highlights the political, LBGTQ+, HIV/aids, and police brutality issues in the black community that he himself has experienced and paints a picture of.

During Smith’s online reading he speaks about how in many places in his book the idea of black boys being able to be free is brought up a lot, the poem Dinosaurs In The Hood highlights this idea so strongly. Smith speaks about how the first scene of a movie he created in his imagination should be “a little black boy…playing with a dinosaur on the bus” he then goes on to say “don’t let Tarantino direct this in his version the boy plays with a gun, the metaphor: black boys toy with their own lives the foreshadow to his end… no one kills the black boy, no one kills the black boy”. To me, those parts of this poem screamed how society wants black men to be seen as strong, manly, tough and to have no tears to cry hence why a white producer would let the opening scene to a made up movie about a little black boy holding a gun.

Smith talked about how black boys are not allowed to be kids they always have to be seen as the head of the household, cis, and misogynistic. Black men are not allowed by the people around them to be fluid with who they truly are, they are not allowed to be “soft” or show expression or to be happy. This also applies to the LGBTQ+ issue in the black community where black men aren’t allowed to be gay in peace and Smith highlights how even though their family still loves them there is still a piece of them that is not loved and is not accepted  one of the poems he read that touches on what I feel is him speaking about what it was like to be black and either come out as gay or HIV positive to his relatives and what  their reactions were to it is Every Day Is A Funeral & A Miracle. In the poem, Smith talks about how his mother in a sense thinks he is dead and is burying him herself saying “I miss you so much, my sweetest boy.” I think she’s saying  in this poem she misses the old him before she knew he was gay and HIV positive Smith even goes on to write about how he did not want his grandmother to know he is gay and HIV positive:

 “My grandma does not know,

so do not tell her

 if you see her with this poem

burn it,  burn her

burn whatever you must

              how do you tell a woman

who pretends you are just

              having trouble finding a wife

that once, twice daily, a man

enters you, how your blood

smells like a hospital, graveyard

              or a morgue left in the sun

Although I have not finished reading this book in most parts it seems like Smith is literally in a way illustrating his feelings and thoughts in the most beautiful ways in his interview he states that many poems in his book are about him and took some time to be written due to the sensitivity of the topic and the harm it could have on his mental health.

Danez Smith. The author of “ Don’t Call Us Dead” to summarize the book I feel like he had no doubts when making this book. He didn’t care what anyone thought of him, he had no shame in his writing.  After finding out that he was HIV positive I’m pretty sure he thought his life was over. After locking eyes with death he knew he had to change his life around .In one of his poems “ Dear White America” he talks about police brutality against black men which is a really big issue in america right now. I feel like he puts his voice in his writing  and in reality for many black americans. Even though he doesn’t actually say that he’s talking about police brutality, he gives little hits and leaves the reader hanging like “ whats next” . He also calls the folks who died his “ brothers and sisters”. He also talks about blck women and writes a poem about another really big issue that makes african american or even any women of color feel less than.

Even though I dont know him personally I feel like I’ve known this man for years. Also everything he talking about ( mostly about me being black ) I can relate to. People think that me being light skin, gives me more opportunities life but it doenst. When I was younger, in about 1st or second grade, I would get bullied about how light I was from the rest of the class. They would call me “light bright” or “ high yella”. I struggled with my complexion all throu high school, laughing and smiling at the jokes but deep down I would ask why? Why me ? And Im not telling you this because I want you to feel bad for me, Im telling you this because people have feelings. They may not show you at the moment but … trust me they feel it. Now that I look at it I see that they were just young dumb and ignorant .

Over all I think that the book  wants the reader to see what a day in the life of a black, homosexual, HIV ,MAN in america feels like. And I capitalize MAN because he has the balls to actually say what he feels after years of torture and endless fighting to live a happy life.It also lets the reader know that they are  not alone, that they are not the only person who has experienced something horrible in their life. He wants people to wake up and not smell the roses, but to wake up and realize that this is real life. That people are dying everyday for a change.