In Lucille Clifton's "Homage to My Hips," the poet provides an amusing poem that pays tribute to her hips that seem to have their own persona. Using personification, Clifton portrays her hips in ways that are relevant to relations between African American women and men and between African Americans and whites. The speaker is proud of her hips, both their ample size and their liberated nature: "these hips are big hips / they don't need space to / move around in. / they don't fit into little / petty places. these hips / are free hips" (Clifton 1). We see that the places the speaker's hips won't fit she finds "petty" anyway, what could be a veiled reference to blacks being excluded from equal rights with whites, a form of prejudice the poet finds petty.
In a stand of independence, the speaker continues to describe her hips in human terms in ways that connote the African American experience in mainstream racist American culture. The speaker's hips announce their pride and freedom loud and proud: "they don't like to be held back. / these hips have never been enslaved, / they go where they want to go / they do what they want to do" (Clifton 1). It is particularly poignant to hear Clifton recite this anthem aloud, as she is able to bring with it all the depth and pain and overcoming she has experienced to the announcement of freedom. Like the shoulders of the poet which have carried the burden of the weight of racism and prejudice, so her hips are strong enough to support whatever challenges come their way, "these hips are mighty hips" (Clifton 1). Clifton's vocal delivery of this line helps inform the listener that the black experience in American society has been one of hardship and struggle but also one of determination and endurance.
In reading the poem, the lack of capitalization may be a reference to the subordinate position of blacks in a white racist society. Yet at the end of the poem the spea...