By Nandi-Li O’Sullivan

Look at this passage on the screen

It is racist

Look at the words “rusty brown skin”

What do you think AI has to say about that?

Discuss 

Let’s all discuss why this author thinks you’re disgusting

Write an essay analysing “rusty brown skin”

Read those words Read them again

Tell them how you feel and they’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong

Look at this passage on the screen

It’s Wuthering Heights

They think Heathcliff is black

His name indicates he was a slave

Sorry, its name, 

“it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil”

The pronouns are dehumanising

He-It is dehumanised because it is black

It is evil. It is-

Okay, class is over. 

Thanks everyone.

You. Yeah you with the rusty brown skin

With the devil horns hidden in your curly hair

Think about it

Think about the racist text long after the lights in theatre L have switched off 

Think about this new way they’ve shown you to describe yourself

It is racist

They’re excited to show you more

Look at this passage on the screen

“Joseph Weekley, who killed a sleeping, seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones”

You. Yeah you with the rusty brown skin

Did you lock the door?

Doesn’t matter.

They unlocked it for you

Doesn’t matter.

The police blast it down anyway

Because apparently they like violence

Did you know that?

Did you know they don’t want to protect you?

So who will you turn to 

When a man stares at you in the sun?

When you know your skin looks like burnished bronze not rust

You’re enjoying the gold overlay and you want to stay there

But he’s got his phone out now

And you feel like an attraction

Do you prefer the spotlight of the lecture screen?

They need to analyse you, you understand

They need everyone to gather around and look 

At the impurities

You didn’t know you had

Then they’ll hand you a fucking scalpel

And ask you to dissect this racist text

Go ahead

Put it into words

Put it into scientific words distance yourself from it

How does it make you feel that 

Black women don’t make money 

Everyone takes Black women’s jobs 

Takes Black women’s words

Lives

Children

When they’re sleeping

A man creeps in through the carelessly 

Open window 

Kneels by your bed 

What are you complaining about?

You’re not Black

You have rusty skin

You’re devil kissed

But you’re not 

In his grasp

Don’t you know – and he wipes your tears with his gloved hand as he says this – light-skins are Treated better?

He kisses your cheek

Huh sexy? Smile more

His saliva is wet

Mingles with your superfluous tears

You don’t want him in your room but

It’s okay, it’s okay

You’ll call 911 

Nandi-Li O’Sullivan is a university student, studying English with Creative Writing at NCAD. Her work has previously been published in the Storm anthology by Minds Shine Bright. Nandi’s writing explores trauma and where it is in the body and how it is shared between the body and the world. This is the first time that she has written about her experience as a biracial female in an academic environment. “Devil Kissed” is the product of an assignment similar to the ones that she wrestles with in the poem, but it also provided her with the opportunity to voice the anger that has been simmering under her skin.

In “Devil Kissed'“, Nandi-Li captures the intersectional struggles and confusion faced by a new generation. As someone who embodies the very experiences that are often objectified and dissected in academic settings, their frustration with this subject-object divide emerges in bursts of stream-of-consciousness testimony. The poem was originally recorded as part of a critical studies class, taught by PhD Researcher Judit Csobod (a.k.a. @girlwithoutaruler).