Make Sure to "Bring your Brown-ness": Skin Color as an Accessory

Lauryn Davis

           Upon first reading, "The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual," by Ada Limon, I was struck by the directness of the opening couplet, "When you come, bring your brown-ness so we can be sure to please / the funders. " This line resonates with me and I believe that it speaks volumes on its own. This line insinuates that skin color is something that people are able to leave at home. Skin color is an accessory that people choose to wear when it is most advantageous. Furthermore, I feel that this couplet does a great way of emphasizing the way many white people view people of color, as almost privileged in some way. This couplet reminds me of something my dad always told my sisters and myself growing up, "You will have to work twice as hard for everything you want and when you get it, they will tell you that it was handed to you," because this couplet is what the contract says, according to Limon's poem, and this contract is presumably written by white people or "they," as my dad would put it. 
          Moreover, I found this couplet intriguing as well as confusing because Limon opens the poem with a line about race/skin color while the title is focused more on language/bilingualism. I think that, as everything is in poetry, this choice was purposeful. I think that beginning the poem regarding bilingualism with a line concerning race functions as a way to depict the important role that race and language have together. This may have been a commentary on the way many people determine someone's mother tongue based solely upon the color of their skin. 
     I found a slam poem by Melissa Lozada-Oliva entitled, "My Spanish," that I feel is almost a response to what "the contract says." 

Discussion Questions:

1.) What are the functions of starting this poem with a reference to "brown-ness" rather than language/language barriers/bilingualism, as the title suggests? 

2.) What is the purpose of having this written in poetry form versus any other form such as prose?