No Problem

Question 1

I am not de problem

Answer 1

Reaffirms that the victims of racism aren’t the ones to blame, powerful opening line as a confrontational tone set up to interrogate the stereotypes against people who face racism.

Phonetic spelling / non-standard English represents Caribbean identity as an expression of culture

Question 2

But I bear the brunt
Of silly playground taunts

Answer 2

School imagery - mocks and satirises the childish nature of racial taunts to shame those who perpetuate these stereotypes as immature

Question 3

I am born academic
But dey got me on de run
Now I am branded athletic

Answer 3

Branded - permanence and lack of power over the impression he has been given. Could also reference branding as a reputation, perpetuating the stereotype that black people run faster

Academic - teachers have labelled him based on racist stereotypes, so his true academic potential has been overlooked

Run - Criminal stereotypes of running from the police, as black people are more likely to be detained by police due to unconscious bias

Branded has connotations of the dehumanisation of slaves who were branded with iron to mark them being owned

Question 4

Timbuktu

Answer 4

West African hub of education.

Question 5

I greet yu wid a smile
Yu put me in a pigeon hole
But I am versatile

Answer 5

Direct address calls out, blames, interrogates, challenges stereotypes of the audience

Friendly nature of a smile contrasted by the pigeon-hole connoting to entrapment, confinement, labelling

Declarative protests against the minimising of him to his race, as he is a multifaceted individual and wants to be treated as such

Question 6

Sum of me best friends are white.

Answer 6

Mocks with a frustrated undertone the common justifications for racism, identifying it as ludicrous.