The United States

Diaz refers often to the U.S. and locations therein, usually through the lens of the centuries of atrocities of displacement and genocide perpetrated against Native Americans by the European settlers. The settlers forced the indigenous populations out of the lands they inhabited, spreading disease, facilitating exploitative trade and labor practices, and outright murdering thousands if not millions of people. In "Manhattan is a Lenape Word," Diaz notes the irony of Native American place names in America, suggesting this is a particularly outrageous form of appropriation given the theft of land. In contemporary America, genocidal practices have been replaced by marginalization and state-sanctioned violence. In "American Arithmetic," Diaz notes that Native Americans are killed more frequently by police (per capita) than any other race. In "They Don't Love You Like I Love You," Diaz declares herself "the beast of my country's burdens" (20), referring to the tremendous...