"Mr. Z" - M. Carl Holman

The story of this "Mr. Z" has a sense of sad irony to it. Society convinced him that the skin of his mother was inferior. I found it very interesting that Holman chose to say his mother's skin. I am not sure if this implies that his father was a different race or maybe even that he was raised by his mother or some certain circumstance. The reader can deduce from the characterization that Mr. Z is black from details such as: "Disclaimed kinship with jazz and spirituals" and "His palate shrank from cornbread, yams and collards" (Holman). The poems begins with saying that he is an error, but he seemed like he could not do anything wrong.This is ironic because Mr. Z seemed to have everything going for him. He had a great education, a "perfect" wife, and most likely a successful career. Everything about him was the perfect the white man, except for his skin color. Consequently, he was called, "One of the most distinguished members of his race" (Holman). They did not say one of the most distinguished humans. This is a rather sad irony to think of that he spends his whole life trying to escape the labels of his skin color, yet he is still regarded for his skin color in his death. No matter how hard he tried, he could not change his skin color.