Sympathy Response

To me this poem says that we have struggled as African Americans for freedom for very long time and that we have went through pain and suffereing to be where we are today. it says that we were kept locked away as if we were a secret from the world. it locked us away from accomplishing the great things that we can accomplish today. We were locked away all because some people thought we weren't good enough to walk the earth as a part of society with them. We were thought of as animals. Now you see great things from us like the first African American president of the United States of America. This poem says that racism was not allowing us to live up to our full potential as african americans. All of our talents were kept away from society as if it were a deadly disease. the bird is crying for freedom from this cage that damages its wings. The bird beats its wings against the bars to spread them far and show its beauty. But in the process it gains scars given to it by the one thing that keeps it locked in the cage. Looking at all the accomplishments black people have made today shows us that Paul Dunbar's bird is free from its cage of racism and has shown us all what it can do.