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POEM OF THE MONTH, August 2006 |
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Written by Joe Navarro
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Tuesday, 01 August 2006 |
Outside His Whiteness
I told this guy that he should
step outside his whiteness.
And he did.
But he felt odd at first.
Everything began to look
strangely different.
Truths suddenly became lies.
The rich got richer,
the poor got poorer,
there was no justice.
Wow! He exclaimed.
Everything is clearer now!
He began shouting with excitement.
Everything was blurred before!
I couldn't tell right from wrong.
I felt no compassion for people
who cried about oppression.
Now my heart hurts for
all people who suffer.
Oh my god! he shouted.
All of this clarity is
making my head spin.
It's giving me a headache!
I just realized that Black
people were enslaved!
And Indians were nearly annihilated!
Mexicans were forced off their lands!
Did you know that they
made laws against Chinese?
Japanese were locked up for
Being Japanese!
Wow! He shouted again.
He then open-handedly
grabbed his temples
and squeezed his head
tightly, as if it were
preparing to explode.
I stared at him,
not knowing what to do.
Then his eyes turned up
into his head, showing only
the whites of his eyes.
Then he fell back into
his whiteness.
I asked if he was okay,
to which he unfortunately
responded, Oh yeah
I'm back to normal again.
copyright 2000
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