Upon reading Diaz’s interview, I felt as if she thinks society is stuck in a phase where individuals lack expression. When someone expresses themselves they usually do it in the same way as the next person, she mentions that it has a lot to do with us being stuck with social media most of the time. She also mentions that she isn’t able to express herself because it was often viewed as wrong. In the poem “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation”, I feel as if Diaz did a magnificent way in showing how hard it is for one to actually take back control of their own body.
Certain people in todays society have set standards for many to follow and if you don’t fit into those specific standards then you’re simply left out or counted as less than those that do. In lines 17-19 Diaz mentions the characteristics of the angel and she’s basically saying that Indians can’t be angels because all angels are white. I think this like goes beyond just in the poem the “angels or white people” represent society and the Indians represent people of color overall. Society doesn’t allow poc to step outside the box and become who they are because it’s just not normal. It has conformed into one and anyone that doesn’t do the same as everyone else is frowned upon or judged.
In lines 29-30 Diaz says that even though angels exist one might want to stay clear of them because they do more wrong for poc than good. I think in a way this is poc taking control of their body/ becoming who they please and she’s basically saying that they shouldn’t let anyone else in society tear them down in any way.