To answer an essay question on any poem, you need to be confident that you understand what it is about. This section includes:
- The poem in a nutshell
- An explanation of the poem, stanza-by-stanza
- A commentary of each of these stanzas, outlining Zephaniah's intention and message
'No Problem' in a nutshell
'No Problem' is about Zephaniah’s personal experience of racism, and is written from a first-person perspective. The poem explores the racial discrimination and abuse the speaker (who represents Zephaniah) has encountered in his life. The speaker details the way that teachers and other students behaved in a prejudiced way. However, he makes it clear that he is “not de problem”; racial prejudice is the real problem. The speaker demonstrates his ability to overcome racist abuse by focusing on his strengths, such as being “versatile”. Finally, he acknowledges that he may have been psychologically damaged by the racism he’s experienced, but that this is not going to affect his whole outlook on life.
'No Problem' breakdown
Lines 1–4
“I am not de problem
But I bear de brunt
Of silly playground taunts
An racist stunts,”
Explanation
- The speaker asserts that he is not the problem
- However, he suffers the effects (“bear the brunt”) of being mocked (“taunts”) in the playground and having racist “stunts”, or tricks, played on him
Zephaniah's intention
- Opening the poem with the speaker’s main assertion – that he is “not de problem” – makes it clear that there is a problem
- This line is a repeated refrain in the first stanza, emphasising the fact that people with racist views are the problem, not the speaker
- The following lines clarify the nature of the problem: the racist abuse he suffers at school
- The use of formal English – “I am not” – suggests the speaker’s anger and his desire to get his point across to those who are responsible for the abuse
- The use of dialect – “de” instead of “the” – emphasises the speaker’s distinct identity as a person of Caribbean heritage
Lines 5–8
“I am not de problem
I am born academic
But dey got me on de run
Now I am branded athletic”
Explanation
- The speaker repeats that he is not the problem
- He has always been naturally intellectual, but his teachers – “dey” – make him do running
- Now, he is stereotyped as “athletic”
Zephaniah's intention
- The repeated refrain “I am not de problem” introduces another way in which the racism of other people is the real problem
- The speaker is “born academic”, meaning that thinking is a natural part of his personality
- However, the teachers at his school display racial prejudice by making him run instead:
- Their behaviour plays into racist stereotypes of Black men and boys being “naturally” good at sports
- The result is that the speaker’s real strengths are ignored and not valued
- The verb “branded” demonstrates the negative effects of this stereotyping and lack of choice:
- “Branded” evokes slavery, as Black slaves were branded by white slave owners
- The overall meaning of these lines is “don’t judge a person by the colour of their skin”
Lines 9–12
“I am not de problem
If yu give I a chance
I can teach yu of Timbuktu
I can do more dan dance,”
Explanation
- The speaker repeats that he is not the problem
- If people gave him a chance, he could teach them about Timbuktu
- He can do more than stereotypes of Black people (such as being good at dancing) suggest
Zephaniah's intention
- The problem in these lines is shown to be further examples of racist stereotyping
- The people around the speaker don’t give him the opportunity to show them how much he knows
- “Timbuktu” is a symbolic choice of place to represent the speaker’s knowledge:
- It’s a city that is famous for being a centre of learning and culture for hundreds of years
- Zephaniah is making the point that his intelligence and knowledge are constantly underestimated because of his racial identity
- The stereotype of Black people having “natural rhythm” and being good at dancing has been imposed on the speaker and shut him off from more intellectual pursuits
Lines 13–16
“I am not de problem
I greet yu wid a smile
Yu put me in a pigeon hole
But I am versatile”
Explanation
- The speaker is not the problem; he has a positive attitude and smiles at people
- However, people still stereotype him – “put me in a pigeon hole” – despite the fact that he is adaptable and multitalented (“versatile”)
Zephaniah's intention
- These lines sum up the way the speaker has been treated and how he has responded
- People try to “pigeonhole” him by making him do things that Black people are supposed to be good at, according to racist stereotypes
- This has restricted him from doing what he’s actually good at:
- “Pigeon hole” is a metaphor for the way the speaker has been boxed in by racist expectations
- But it’s not just other people who do this; the line is addressed to “yu”, the reader
- This makes us question our own views – do we also use stereotypes?
- Despite all the ways he has been stereotyped, the speaker maintains his self-belief:
- He knows he is “versatile” enough to overcome the restrictions other people have placed on him
Lines 17–24
“These conditions may affect me
As I get older,
An I am positively sure
I have no chips on me shoulders,
Black is not de problem
Mother country get it right
An juss fe de record,
Sum of me best friends are white.”
Explanation
- The speaker feels that the negative effects of the racism he’s experienced may affect him later in life
- However, he is absolutely certain he doesn’t hold any grudges or have a sense of inferiority to others
- Black people are not the problem, but England gets that wrong and must try harder
- Just for the record, some of the speaker’s best friends are white people
Zephaniah's intention
- By acknowledging that the racism he’s experienced might affect him “As I get older”, the speaker recognises the traumatic nature of his experiences
- However, he shows his resilience by stating that he has no “chips on my shoulders”:
- He does not feel bitter or inferior to the people who have racially abused him
- However, there is a sense that this idiom reflects back on his abusers:
- Perhaps they are the ones with a sense of inferiority
- The refrain returns with a slight change, from “I” to “Black”, expanding Zephaniah’s argument from the personal level to a wider social level:
- The speaker is referring to stereotypical representations of Black people, historically and in the media, in order to challenge them
- England is the speaker’s “Mother country”, which means it’s his home and he is a part of it, just as much as white people
- The speaker demands “get it right” to show that racial attitudes in England are wrong and need fixing
- The final statement can be read as the speaker stating that he has no resentment against white people for the abuse he’s suffered
- However, it can also be read as sarcastic, because it’s an inversion of a typical (but problematic) assertion: “I can’t be racist – I have Black friends”:
- This way of judging a whole group of people on the basis of knowing a few individuals creates stereotypes, so the speaker is echoing the stereotypical thinking he has encountered
- The fact that Zephaniah ends the poem with a joke shows his ability to overcome the cruelty and restrictions of racial prejudice
- It also undermines racism at a fundamental level by laughing at it