Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question Summary
The poem “Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question” is written by Native American Diane Burns and published in 1981. It presents one side of an awkward conversation between a Native American woman and another person.
The Native American and the other person, presumably a white woman, are both at fault for making the conversation awkward. Because the Native American is already tired of the conversation before it starts, seemingly because she has had it numerous times before, she is being unnecessarily difficult in the beginning. However, the other woman, who is clearly very curious – but ignorant, appears to be completely oblivious to the fact that the Native American is annoyed with her. Assuming the title is part of the conversation, she actually …show more content…
Then she makes it awkward by apologising for something she had nothing to do with and making her apology about how “decent” she is for apologising, while thinking that she is being nice. The conversation becomes very awkward when she lets her prejudice show. She clearly believes in old stereotypes like the idea that all Native Americans make their own clothes and that they dance to make the rain come. After all this, the Native American woman has had enough of the other woman’s racist stereotypes, and stops listening. She says “Yeah. Uh-huh.” to everything in hopes of ending the conversation. The white woman refuses to realize that she is uninterested and keeps offending her by bringing up alcohol abuse among Native Americans. The Native American answers by saying “Yeah, a lot of us drink too much. Some of us can’t drink enough.”, passive-aggressively implying that she is so tired of talking with the other woman that she would need to get drunk to be able to keep doing so.
The Native American and the other person are both responsible for the conversation being so awkward. The Native American is at fault because she does not properly participate, and the other person is liable because she comes with ignorant and prejudiced
The Native American and the other person, presumably a white woman, are both at fault for making the conversation awkward. Because the Native American is already tired of the conversation before it starts, seemingly because she has had it numerous times before, she is being unnecessarily difficult in the beginning. However, the other woman, who is clearly very curious – but ignorant, appears to be completely oblivious to the fact that the Native American is annoyed with her. Assuming the title is part of the conversation, she actually …show more content…
Then she makes it awkward by apologising for something she had nothing to do with and making her apology about how “decent” she is for apologising, while thinking that she is being nice. The conversation becomes very awkward when she lets her prejudice show. She clearly believes in old stereotypes like the idea that all Native Americans make their own clothes and that they dance to make the rain come. After all this, the Native American woman has had enough of the other woman’s racist stereotypes, and stops listening. She says “Yeah. Uh-huh.” to everything in hopes of ending the conversation. The white woman refuses to realize that she is uninterested and keeps offending her by bringing up alcohol abuse among Native Americans. The Native American answers by saying “Yeah, a lot of us drink too much. Some of us can’t drink enough.”, passive-aggressively implying that she is so tired of talking with the other woman that she would need to get drunk to be able to keep doing so.
The Native American and the other person are both responsible for the conversation being so awkward. The Native American is at fault because she does not properly participate, and the other person is liable because she comes with ignorant and prejudiced