Detailed Analysis of Amiri Baraka's 'Dope' for University Essay

This essay provides an analysis of Amiri Baraka's poem, 'Dope'. The paper examines the poem's structure, themes, and social commentary, focusing on Baraka's critique of racism, the political landscape of the United States, and the impact of societal structures on the African American community. It delves into the poem's use of fragmentation and satire to deconstruct stereotypes, and the reference to the drug cocaine and its effects on the community. The essay also explores Baraka's criticisms of the bourgeois black and Christian values, as well as his modeling of a shift in black consciousness through his cultural politics. It also references the poet's speaking style and the use of the style of a black preacher. The paper concludes by highlighting the poem's unique style and its critique of colonialism.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF DOPE BY AMIRI BARAKA
Analysis of Dope by Amiri Baraka
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1ANALYSIS OF DOPE BY AMIRI BARAKA
“Dope” is less of a poem and more of a satire, an accusation, an explosion and an
investigation that kills. The energy of the poet in this poem is purely unmatched. It is to note
that the poet of this poem, Amiri Baraka is a militant, Marxist and a homophobic rant who
denounces both the black holiness and white supremacy (Pfister). This paper shall elaborate
on analysing this poem by Amiri Baraka.
The presence of fragmentation in the poem “Dope” reflects a strong desire of
exploding an illusively unitary world view that is held together by means of dominant
technology where the Devil and the communists are to blame for why the things are such
hard for so many of people. Dope is one of the many pieces of Amiri Baraka that
deconstructs the racist misconceptions and stereotypes that essentialize the African
Americans (Durham). The poem is started with “uuu uuuu uuuu uuu” and is aimed towards
mimicking a monkey. This embodies the racist assumptions for demonstrating the various
different ways in which the community of African Americans have become complacent in
their continued oppression. Throughout the poem, Amiri Baraka notably criticised the politics
of United States for their systematic discrimination of the African Americans community and
at the same time, have prefaced his performance and skills by means of suggesting that it is
highly dedicated to the realities of “Ghetto”.
It is to note that the title of the poem “Dope” is a reference to the drug cocaine. It was
highly argued by many that it was introduced into the neighbourhoods and the communities
of the African Americans by the CIA and has led to high level of drug related imprisonment
and crimes among the male African Americans (Marable). It is also to mention that in this
poem, the poet has also critiqued the values of the bourgeois black. Baraka is suggesting that
they are highly rooted in the complacency of the church of those times- “Oh no can’t be the
rich folk, must be the devil… Put your money in the plate and don’t be late, you gonna be in
heaven after you die”. It is also to mention that, in the poem, he is also suggesting that

2ANALYSIS OF DOPE BY AMIRI BARAKA
Christian believes in the afterlife. This served as a justification for overlooking the injustice
and the inequalities of the corporeality. However, by means of turning the gaze all inward, he
not only is challenging the racist assumptions that could serve for subjugating the African
Americans, but at that same time, is also the community itself that he suggests has been
placating by the capitalism and the churches to think “Wasn’t slavery so nice?”
This poem has drawn the attention of the readers to the oppressive structures of the
powers as well as the different ways in which the African Americans have globalised their
oppression. Though Reed have suggested that the Black Panthers were the people who used
to perform the “new black man” but it is to argue that Baraka has also modelled a shift in the
consciousness of the blacks by means of his codification and cultural politics of the black
aesthetic. Notwithstanding this fact, unlike the strategy of the Black Panthers for targeting the
outlets of the media and shaping the perceptions of the masses about the civil rights
movement, the poet intervened in their perception by means of performing his pieces in the
settings that are more of formal theatre and the smaller venues that led him to engage more
intimately with the African American communities. Notwithstanding this fact, it is also to
note that according to Collins (2018), Baraka has used the style of a black preacher as his
speaking style and has claimed that the corruption, inequalities and injustice in the African
Americans’ communities is due to the “devils” and not because of the white leaders as
suggested from the phrase “must be the devil”
Hence, it is to state that the poem “Dope” by Amiri Baraka is a unique piece. The poet
has used some swift lines within some mountainous stanzas for critiquing the results of the
colonialism in ruthless and whimsical way. He claims that the Whites who he thought to be
the pinnacle of humanity are the least natural phenomena present on earth due to the
destruction that they have caused.

3ANALYSIS OF DOPE BY AMIRI BARAKA
References:
Collins, Armondo. The Black God Trope: Toward a History of Black Nationalist Religious
Rhetoric. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2018.
Durham, I.A., 2017. U,(New) Black (?) Maybe: Nostalgia and Amnesia in Dope. Black
Camera, 8(2), pp.165-182.
Marable, Manning. How capitalism underdeveloped Black America: Problems in race,
political economy, and society. Haymarket Books, 2015.
Pfister, Joel. Surveyors of Customs: American Literature as Cultural Analysis. Oxford
University Press, 2015.