The Classroom

Vulgar sentiments expressed by my college professors

“America, you ethnocentric cur!
Your fathers raped and whored these virgin lands
And slew the native peoples with disease.
The slaves you freed remain a slave to her:
Your Lady Liberty, whose kin on sands
So far from home let spangled blood with ease.
At home, we cry: ‘It’s not our war! Forget
Democracy abroad. We wish to live
In peace and love—the enemy is us!’
America, we hate the way you’re set
In Moses’ law—a fact we can’t forgive.
Reject your God! In apes alone we trust.
America, your beauty wanes and thins
Beneath the shackled weight of all our sins.”