Outcast/ Revolutionary?

Be Nobody's Darling

Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.

Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer;
Let them look askance at you
And you askance reply.

Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or line the crowded
River beds
With other impetuous
Fools.

Make a merry gathering
On the bank
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said.

Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.

by Alice Walker

"It is only in being an outcast that you have freedom"

1. In choosing to be an outcast, you must consider and accept the pain and sorrow that necessarily comes with this path. Alice Walker's poetic call to be an outcast reminds me of Huey Newton's definition of being a revolutionary. In the introduction to his book Revolutionary Suicide he states: "The revolutionary must always be prepared to face death and hope because it symbolizes a resolute determination to bring about change. Above all, it demands the revolutionary to see his death and his life as one piece" (p.7).

Any ideas, thoughts about this notion of a revolutionary and/or outcast?

----Sonal