SoulbalmSpeaks
Letter from Whiteness
(An Attitude) to People of Color in America
You. Don’t. Matter.
Yes, you may be educated.
Perhaps you may have more than humble means.
You may have squeezed through the door with grace, mercy,
And affirmative action,
But I don’t feel challenged by your essence;
In fact, I’m numb to your presence,
Because
You. Don’t. Matter.
You may have a surprisingly high intellect.
Your conversation intrigues me.
I am amazed to discover your vocabulary
Exceeds me.
You are an interesting little aberration
On the scale of American existence.
You are a pleasure and a treasure
Because (and when) I choose to see you.
Still, in the grand scheme of all in life that counts
I feel no need to include your perspective
And all you do will be standardized by the stick I create
Because
You. Don’t. Matter.
You can talk until you are blue in the face,
But I wouldn’t see it because of your race.
You can protest and march
And call all manner of foul
In the game that I created, I can’t lose,
I’m the star.
If I see you making tracks
Against you the deck I will stack
And yes, it’s because you are yellow, red, brown, or black, so
You. Don’t. Matter.
When you complain I will look concerned
I may even commiserate about some instances in which I was burned,
Or some lessons about hard life that I have learned,
But I refuse to see how that means I need to change.
If you point to discrimination, I can justify my actions,
So get with my program, and stop marking time
By eras called Civil Rights.
You need to learn my ways
And think the way that I think
And blend into the world I create
In the way that I see fit for you to exist.
Stop whining about the past, slavery is over!
Get past your own excuses
And find the silver lining in the cloud you call
My smoke and mirrors.
Realize the decades and centuries will pass--
And if you aren’t careful, greater distance will amass
Between where I am and where you want to be--
And you, in every history book, are still counted as free.
If you don’t learn that where I am is the place to be
You. Don’t. Matter.
You may learn to think and act like me
And play the game by my rules
And talk against those who do not assimilate
To show that you have committed to this relationship
And I will show my appreciation by not bothering you
Or perhaps by ignoring you
Or perhaps by parading you around the coloreds as an example
Of how they should be to get along better with me.
I will play the role by giving you my public support
Then privately undermine your efforts
With public comments and retorts
And the code words that incite fear
Among those who embrace whiteness as a full-time endeavor.
I will not use the word race, but will castrate you with my power
Of the fear of exclusion,
So that even those who barely resemble me
Will just not want to be connected with you.
I will make your very name taboo
Because in my version of my truth
You. Don’t. Matter.
Poetry by Soulbalm