The United States Welcomes You

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Nature of Mistrust and Fear

In an interview with Auburn Avenue, Tracy K. Smith identifies a central theme of “The United States Welcomes You”: “It became a poem about mistrust, and it begins, in the final lines, to suspect that such a stance of pre-emptive fear is dangerous to us all” (“Tracy K. Smith.” 2018. Auburn Avenue). Fear underlies all of the questions posed by the speaker of the poem. The first question is about “power” (Line 1), which illustrates how the speaker fears that someone, or some organization, has more power than the United States's law enforcement. The second question ostensibly demonstrates that the speaker fears the suspect is a thief. However, the repeated accusation of theft obscures other fears.

Mistrust and fear by law enforcement agents are rooted in the fear of difference. The cultural differences Smith highlights are how the body is used and how emotions are displayed. The question “Why this dancing?” (Line 3) demonstrates a traditional Protestant view (from the white settlers of America) of dancing as immoral and wrong. It also illustrates how people in power fear demonstrations of joy from people who have been traditionally oppressed. Law enforcement agents fear not only joy, but other demonstrations of emotion as well. The question “What are you demanding / that we feel?” (Lines 4-5) may promote a refusal of empathy. Smith portrays empathy as antithetical to the corrupt power structure of law enforcement. Empathy can potentially disrupt power that is based in subjugating others.

When the speaker of the poem explicitly asks the suspect, “Then / Why are you afraid?” (Lines 9-10), Smith further unpacks the idea of fear. The interrogator implies that guilt makes people afraid, and Smith highlights the projection from the speaker onto the suspect in this line of questioning. Law enforcement agencies are guilty of many unnecessary, violent crimes against people with “dark bodies” (Line 3), and this guilt promotes mistrust. However, a suspect with dark skin has fears that are rooted in the distinctly American systemic practices of slavery and injustice.

At the end of the poem, Smith examines how the interrogator, and the system of law enforcement, is harmed by fear. The speaker wonders if they are being tested, and asks, “What if we / Fail?” (Lines 13-14). Returning back to the Protestant, conservative ideals that have been used by white law enforcement agents to condemn people from other cultures, these agents may only fear God. The power of law enforcement agencies has grown so much that only someone with divine power can stop them. God could issue an “enigmatic type of test” (Line 13) and punish those who fail that test. However, the idea of a wrathful God who instills fear is a fundamental issue.

Law Enforcement and White Supremacy

Part of the fear that Smith explores in “The United States Welcomes You” is due to the history of white supremacy that influences how law enforcement agencies operate. The speaker implies that the suspect should not be afraid if they are not related to, or associated with, “others brought by us to harm” (Line 9). The grammatical composition of this sentence attempts to hide the subject, or who caused the harm. This passive voice demonstrates how the subject is unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. Harm, here, refers to the violence enacted by law enforcement officials due to racist beliefs.

In an interview with the Washington Square Review, Smith notes that she imagined the person with their “hands raised” (Line 11), as “a Black man with his hands in the air” (Wright. Eleanor. “An Interview with Tracy K. Smith.” 2018. Washington Square Review). This connects the harm mentioned in Line 9 with the peculiar institution of slavery. Many prison abolitionists have noted how modern prisons have become a new form of slavery, given that the majority of the prison population consists of Black men. Law enforcement agents disproportionally target Black men: men whose families have been harmed by chattel slavery. The mistrust of Black men that causes racial profiling by law enforcement is rooted in pro-slavery propaganda that characterizes these men as untrustworthy and even subhuman.

However, with the ironic title, Smith opens her poem to include other non-white bodies. In the same interview, she says, “I think the title, which came after I’d finished the poem, enlarged the initial scope of the poem” (“An Interview with Tracy K. Smith”). Many poetry lovers share and analyze “The United States Welcomes You” in the context of immigration and anti-terrorist law enforcement. Immigrants are not welcomed to the United States by many agents because of white supremacy. Law enforcement agents also target American citizens whose families are from the Middle East. In all of these cases, the non-white person is characterized as someone to be feared because of their differences.

Language of the Oppressor

Smith elevates the usual language of interrogation by including poetic diction (word choice). This diction highlights how the language of rich white men—European and British poets—has been deemed as canonical, or central, to poetry. Love poetry, particularly sonnets, have historically contained violent language. Smith's structuring of her poem as a pseudo-sonnet (resembling a sonnet because of the number of lines and syllables per line) clues the avid poetry reader into this diction. In addition to the obvious “dancing” and “bodies” (Line 3) that often appear in love poetry, phrases like “What is that leaping in your chest?” (Line 6) can be seen in sonnets about love.

The motif of confession references the religion of love in medieval chivalric romance. Smith’s diction choices “Do you seek / To offer a confession?” (Lines 7-8) and “Is there something you wish to confess?” (Line 12) remind readers of the confessions of love chivalrous knights make to their beloveds. The secular religion of love in the French and English literary tradition turned language that had once been used to celebrate God into language that celebrates a woman. Smith’s use of this courtly love language is ironic, like the title of her poem. There is no welcoming love in law enforcement. Furthermore, there remains the issue of dismantling white supremacy by using the language of the oppressor.