United
I will now worry
when my heart and soul
puts on that uniform
that some now see
as a symbol of hate.
Still,
I am privileged
for I never had reason to fear until then,
while others have had to be afraid
every single day-
for centuries on end-
filled with constant worries
for their sons,
their daughters,
their entire family,
their friends-
worries that I
will never be able to comprehend.
He will be able to remove that uniform-
be seen as human,
but one cannot change
the color of their skin.
We have to do better.
We have to be the change.
We have to make the world
a safer place.
Not for us-for them,
because until we do…
us will never mean
All of us.
and unity will never truly be
United.
Current events inspired this poem. I initially wrote out a post discussing all of my thoughts and feelings, but it ended up being incoherent rambling and things flowed much better in the Inside Voice format.
I’ve seen so many hate shared from all ends of the internet during these difficult times. It is okay to have your own struggles and worries, but it is not okay to use them as means to undermine a movement. Racism is the catalyst that swings a pendulum of hate and it begins with us, the privileged, to stop its swinging.
