..... 

82 

“On Affirmative Action” 
          Tammy Ronique Williams 

 

Born in Moscow Russia and raised in Kingston Jamaica, Tammy Ronique Williams is 

a third year student at the University of Toronto. She is pursuing an Honours 

Bachelor's Degree in English and Caribbean Studies, with a minor in Russian. She 

hopes to someday become a published author. 
 

 
So… 

You want to take my picture? 
put it on your website? 

class yourself among they that honour diversity? 

You want to exotize my tongue, 
tug at my hair, 

then boast images of my black skin 
in your track bottoms and throw back tees 

as if I am any more than a minority? 

I’ll pass 
cuz I’d much rather not 

sit in to fill in the blended shades 
of your acceptance packages. 

I don’t want to be your 
one 

in 
few 

little island girl, 
your affirmative action friend. 

I can’t promise to take you on wicked cool adventures 
through my ‘local’ mind 

portraying a Jamaica more exotic than I know! 

 

 



TAMMY RONIQUE WILLIAMS | 

ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 

 

83 

I am not your june plum, 
don’t pick at me for grasping my mother-tongue 
It’s b-a-s-i-c-a-l-l-y,  
not basically 
and when the time comes  
I speak patois not broken English. 

You think you know me  
‘cause you can hum the tune of I shot the Sheriff? 
or ‘cause at her hotel gift shop, 
your friend bought you a t-shirt 
made in China, 
Jamaica, no problem? 

I don’t live in a tree, 
or in a hammock on the beach, 
neither do I know any monkeys. 

Can’t wrap your brain 
so you want to wrap your fingers 
around the tight curls of my mane, 
since I’m Jamaican and Marley’s hairstyle 
and mine aren’t the same? 

My friend said I’d get a job 
if I took black, gold and green off my resume, 
I asked her WHAT THE HELL else I was suppose to say. 

Centuries of hot whips, 
blood, tears, sweat, milk, 
sugar, gold, cotton, silk 
and suddenly I don’t possess the skills? 

Canadian on appropriation, 
you point your fingers, 
turn your nose  
and clutch your chanel, 
only you seem not to realize, 
you’re an immigrant yourself.