Perhaps a hard one to swallow but something I feel strongly about:
Shades of Blue by: Sarah Dixon
I grew up with those of a royal colored skin,
my mother was a tone of navy,
my father was a hue of sky.
And I always believed that all blues are the same within,
differences are merely a phantasm of the eye.
Once a shade of royal asked me for some pocket change.
I said, "I'm sorry ma'am, there's nothing I can do."
She called me a racist, which was an unfair exchange,
and in my mind I screamed,
"Who's the true racist? Me or you?"
2 comments:
Wow Sarah. Honestly, the sad truth is, as much as we don't want to believe (or admit) it, we are all prejudice in some ways..... and if we think we're not we're kidding ourselves. Racism is a terrible thing, and I have tried to teach my kids we are all the same on the inside. And then a tinge of racism creeps in to my way of thinking and I feel ashamed. The interesting thing is, with my friends there is no racism. It's always with people I don't know. That really accentuates the reality of judging a book by it's cover. If I can approach the book with an open mind, if I am willing to just read a chapter, if I can just understand the story of the book, if I make an effort to get inside the writer's head, I can see beyond the cover and embrace the truth with great joy.
Oh, I also liked the use of the "shades" of blue in the poem. Great analogy....
hahaha - I forgot, that was the title....:)
I'm not sure I get it to be honest. I'm not too good at poetry interprutation.
I do so hate frivilous accusations of racism though, is that what this is about? It seems like it might be, but maybe it's something deeper than that.
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