We Are Not Responsible

Harryette Mullen is known for examining the injustices experienced by Black people and other oppressed minority groups with techniques inspired by the Oulipo group founded in the 1960s. Oulipo’s central concern, according to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, is “writing under constraint [which] consists of obeying self-imposed and explicit rules of composition” (p. 987). The constraint Mullen uses in “We Are Not Responsible” is the structure of airline announcements. The process then becomes replacing only enough words to get her point across; if she replaces too many words, the familiarity of the phrases is lost. The Oulipo form is traditionally used by white French writers and mathematicians; Mullen appropriating such techniques to convey messages about racism gives the constraints a new complexity.

Mullen’s poetry draws from a wide variety of other traditions, as well. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Mullen’s book Sleeping with the Dictionary “show[s] her extraordinary range of influences, from blues to erudition” (p. 25). The poem “We Are Not Responsible” can also be considered part of the Language poetry movement from the 1970s and 80s. Language, or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E (after the literary magazine by the same name), poetry refers to avant-garde practices that emphasize “the arbitrariness of signification and the constructive character of meaning-making” (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, p. 784). In other words, Mullen explores how people experience language, such as hearing repeated language in airports. Alongside this, she explores what meanings are hidden in those experiences of language, such as the systemic racism that benefits the people who control language (e.g. control who can travel through airports).