That's a cheap shot. There's nothing urban or African American about the content of her poem. No one who read it without knowing the author would be able to guess the author's skin colour (except by dumb luck). So there's nothing racist about my criticism.

Indeed, I've levelled similar charges against the fake poetry that's all over Instagram (where I used to post my poems), and most of those Hallmark style of feel-good, fake poems are written by white people.

And no, the difference between poetry and prose is objective, not subjective, although there might be a gray area in between them. Luckily for me, Gorman's "poem" was nowhere near that middle zone.

Perhaps my criticism repulses you. Yet I can honestly say that what shocks me is the docility of the audience that accepts this dumbing-down of poetry, as though a fake poem like Gorman's should set the standard of what counts as poetry. There's no chance actual poets would be pleased with this LARPing on her part.

The real problem here isn't any critic's racism, but a witch's brew of political correctness, affirmative action, and cultural infantilization.