High to Low

Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussions of racism.

As with money, the poem never explicitly mentions racism. The poem does not contain any references to Jim Crow, segregation, slavery, or lynchings. However, the idea of racism underpins the three key themes. By focusing on class, the speaker repositions the conflict, moving it from race to socioeconomic status. The speaker isn’t battling an entrenched network of racist laws but a specific, identifiable person. The class antagonism makes the problem less overwhelming. If the “low”-class addressee can “uphold the race” (Line 21) like the speaker, then they won’t have as many “problems.” 

The focus on money causes the speaker to perpetuate racist tropes about Black people. However, the speaker isn’t talking about the behavior of all Black people: They’re spotlighting the conduct of Black people with less money. Black people from the lower socioeconomic class “look too black” (Line 6) because they reinforce the racist belief that Black people don’t have money, and their lack of wealth is inseparable from their crass behavior. The speaker isn’t “too black.” They have status and money, so they counter the racist notion. 

Nevertheless, the speaker is Black, and they’re keenly aware of the lethal racism facing people with their skin color, referring to it as “our troubles” (Line 2) and “our problems” (Line 24).