White Privilege Poem Analysis

Some topics are hard to talk about but as Poet Kyla Lacey said “the conversation may stop but the racism continues.”
This was one of the ideas behind her most well known poem titled “White Privilege” which she performed in the UC Down Under Feb. 22 for an intimate crowd.
Kyla Lacey was born in Chicago, lived in Orlando, but currently resides in Atlanta. She is a proud cat mom, had her first poem copy written at age 10, and has now performed at over 200 colleges.
“I kind of have always been a writer,” said Lacey who recalled writing her poem at 10 years old saying” I just wrote it one day and it was called ‘The World’. It was about the world and ‘all the confusion, all the neglect, all the hatred and disrespect.’”
Lacey joked about being an ‘intense kid’ who also wanted to be a vegetarian and was very ‘existential’.
However, as she grew older she would write a little in high school but poetry wasn’t a real outlet anymore.
It wasn’t until her 20s when she began to actually consider performing her poetry.
She wrote a lot of love poems. One of the first poems she performed was for an ex-boyfriend but has since evolved and has tackled different topics. “I have always been controversial I guess, but I grew up in Seminole County Florida and for reference it’s where Trayvon Martin was murdered and it was the first big headline catching murder of its kind. It was really interesting to see the reactions from people I was friends with to George Zimmerman’s acquittal” said Lacey.
She also remembers growing up in Seminole County and always “being the exception.” Lacey scored really high on the ACT and consistently did well in school. However, she often found herself being devalued by some
teachers.
All of this made her see and think of things differently and her poem “White Privilege” is a product of this. “I was never the rule, I was always the exception growing up. I was always prospering despite being a minority it seemed,” said Lacey, “I think in school teachers always were under the expectation that I was accidentally intelligent and didn’t have a parent at home that was heavily invested in my education and growth but that just wasn’t the case.”
But not everything Lacey writes is based on socio-political problems although some may be quick to see her that way based on her powerful poem “White Privilege.”
“I’ve written a lot of love poems, I’ve definitely written a lot of love poems,” said Lacey, “but as I’ve gotten older I kind of want to stream into different things. My tastes have definitely changed as but I still have someone I love on occasion and will write a love poem.”
She performed multiple of her love poems in the Down Under a long with other powerful poems on topics ranging from women’s issues, domestic violence, and relationships.
Lacey thinks this will be her last year on tour performing her poetry. She is currently in the process of writing two books and hopes to release them by summer time. In the mean time she can be followed through her social media which is @kylaJLacey.