WEBVTT

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I'm very interested in
naming, I always have been.

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And the names we call things,
how arrogant we are as humans.

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Particularly, I think
people of the United States

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like to give names to things
and then think of their name.

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I've often said to
my students, what

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do you think a cow calls you?

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

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You probably don't want to know.

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I think it calls me
great, because hamburgers

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are my favorite food.

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And they probably
calls me a great slayer

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of the bull and pounder of
it up into small patties,

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something like that.

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And I started thinking
about that in a lot of ways.

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And I thought about Aunt Jemima.

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I mean, was she my aunt and
was Jemima her name anyway?

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Looking at the box, this is
the voice that came to me.

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Aunt Jemima, white folks
say I remind them of home,

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I who have been homeless all my
life except for their kitchen

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cabinets.

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I who have made the
best of everything,

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pancakes, better for
chicken, my life.

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The shelf on which I sit
between the flour and cornmeal

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is thick with dreams.

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Oh, how I long for
my own syrup, rich

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as blood, my true nephews, my
nieces, my kitchen, my family,

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my home.

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