Response To Brown Brother

Brown Brother.

Brown brother by Joshua Losefo was a text that I found intriguing, I was surprised at how much I related to the poem and how much it moved me. The text describes the typical “brown brother” stereotype. It is such a raw and honest text, snippets of what he says could come across as somewhat offensive, but his clever style of writing and brutal honesty has ensured that it hasn’t.  considering his speech is focused at a high school age group, he includes humour and familiarity to engage students and make them think, lines like “I will probably never graduate and if I do then I will be the first. Either by myself or with a baby in or beside me, victim of teen pregnancy with a guy in high school I thought was ‘skux’.” The harsh reality of this statement is quite shocking and unfortunate. He’s making the point that graduation is such a faint expectation in that world caused only by the generations before their own not making the effort to prove the importance of it. His comment made about pregnancy I thought was another reality hit to his target audience, through the use of the word “skux” he has made the statement engaging and humorous to his audience but at the same time taking an indirect approach to highlighting to everyone how serious this stereotype is and how negatively it has impacted generations of “brown brothers”.

The fact that he is referring to his own culture and has such a passion about what he is speaking about is really engaging to the audience. Knowing what he is talking about as he himself is a “Brown Brother” is really inspirational and shows a sense of reality to those listening, as he is not just telling a story or reading words, he is really showing the audience what is achievable as he is an example of a brown brother breaking the stereotype and really putting himself out here on show to everyone proving himself worthy of the message he is putting across.

It’s evident he is respectful and proud of his heritage so him making statements like “My demographic is: high school cleaning ladies, fast food burger-making, factory box packing, rubbish truck drivers, bus drivers, taxi drives, sober drivers and living off the pension joy riders.” Is more to create awareness and a sense of reality to the audience, he uses such honesty but does so in a way that is not framing a negative image of his culture but more so just creating awareness. He wants to encourage change and notify to those listening that change is possible.

“Now I’m not saying that we need to forget our culture in order to gain- for we are all the same” This line further enforced to me that he is still proud of who and what he is. It made me realise how he is not ashamed of his heritage or what people see it as, he is remarkably passionate about it. He craves others to be as proud as he is and take pride in what they are and make the best of it!

The key message I received from this text is that regardless of your ethnicity, gender, cultural beliefs or any type of stereotype you may be matched to, you should hold confidence and pride in yourself, not allow it to keep you down and hold you from doing things in which you desire. I personally have never felt held back from anything I have wanted to do, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by people that support and encourage my desires without holding pressure or expectations. This text made me realise how even I, without intending to have sort of grown to expect these stereotypes that have been attached to different cultures, whether it be Polynesians, Maori, Asians or Europeans. The idea that all Asians are nerdy or bad drivers, is the exact same concept Joshua is talking about within this text. It has made me take a step back and look at myself and how I perceive others and how I am drawn into these stereotypes, which I am ashamed to say I have been! I found this text extremely eye opening, the message he has put across combined with the intriguing, engaging way he has written it has made me think about a lot, and defiantly made me stop and think about how I perceive others.