In my opinion, this poem is talking about Racism, obviously, as you may already guess from the title: Racist Rot. Even from the title alone, we could already conclude that this poem would be talking about the clashes that happen in society because of Racism.
From the third line (Good White Power I would like to see return.) I assume the ‘I’ in the poem is a white skinned person, or Caucasian. Mainly, I think the ‘I’ – which is going to be referred to as ‘he’ from now on – is talking about how it is unfair that his people (white people) seem to be blamed for what happened to the black people, as could be seen in line 16 (Shame our race with stories tearful--) and 17 (Take our guns and make us fearful--). He also says in line 6-9 that he doesn’t mind black people’s presence, even though he thinks that their style seems weird to him (line7) or that they look extreme to him (line 8). So yes, he certainly does not mind black people, except then when there is a riot where guns are involved and bullets are flying in the air, he seems to blame black people for such incidents, as could be seen in line 12. Although that line (So that God might chance such black souls to redeem.) does not specify whether he means black or white people by the phrase ‘black souls’, I assume it is black people, since in the next lines, line 15-18, he talks about how those Liberal people seem to be cornering white people and blame them for any incidents that happen, even though they have already taken white’s weapons. He also appears to think that what the Liberal does is actually no good, because they just makes the high tension that are between black and white people even higher.
Nowadays, we can see everywhere the propaganda that it is okay for mixed races to live together, that they can actually tolerate each other now—this kind of propaganda is especially most heard about in the USA. Yet Bryant does not agree with this popular belief, because in the next three lines (19-21), he talks about how forcing people from different races to mix together is no good, because it might causes more direct clashes compared to if they just live separately. He implies that by mixing those different races together, we are actually making them hate each other even more. When people who are different—especially from different races—are forced to live side-by-side, the differences between them would even be more prominent, since they are practically living in each other's faces, and every unintentional mistake or miscommunication could morph into something big and intense that would not really happen if they were from the same race. In this kind of situation, discrimination is something that should be expected, despite the slogan of equality that hang in the air.
Speaking of equality, it seems Bryant also has a unique view of it. All this time, we always think that equality—which is always sung and proposed all the time by Liberals—is a good thing, that by treating every person equally and dismissing the difference in wealth, sex, and especially race, we are doing a good thing; because now now none would feel discriminated. Yet Bryant does not think so, because he points out in line 27-30 how such thing as equality would only put bad people in the same place and position as good people, and how stupidity means smartness—which is just plain wrong. I think we could safely conclude that the author does not believe equality is something that we need, that it could solve the problem, because by acknowledging such thing as equality, we actually only encourage more discrimination and creates more problem than necessary; that in this case, the equality itself is one kind of discrimination, and not all of us realize this hard, cold fact.
The next few lines, line 31-36 (I would like to judge on merit,/But when Darks do not inherit/Quite the same brains as their smarter, whiter kin,/One is often more efficient/If one counts Darks as deficient/Even tho this is a Horrid Racist Sin.), are the most extreme and most influential statement of this whole poem in my opinion, because of the irony and the implied truth that most people choose to never acknowledge: the fact that perhaps, one of the reason of the discrimination towards Black people is because of the categorization of the races itself, that was done way more that four centuries ago, that assumed just because there were some difference in facial feature or the shape of the skulls, those differences also decided the size of the brain, thus the assumption and the belief that White people are smarter than Black. If we consider the fact that this categorization of the races were done by a white, and the fact that the white (caucasian) were considered as this best and the highest race in the aforementioned category, there is a possibility that it was done intentionally to make white people superior to other races—which is a popular belief that is still being thought of by some people even now. It is sad, it is cruel, and most of all, it is wrong to think of it like that.
Then in the next lines, Bryant talks about how Blacks are forced to pay some outrageous taxes that their white companion do not have the obligation to pay, or at the very least, not as much as them. They still have to pay some money, despite the fact they receive some horrible mistreatments that really could not be tolerated. In line 45, the author expresses the impossibility to change all this by using the metaphor Is it likely Hell will overfreeze this noon? Because we all know it is definitely impossible for hell to freeze over.
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