I wish labels were for clothes and

Segregation of colors remained in boxes of crayons

That little children used to color their hopes and dreams

On a blank canvas of the unknown.

But if their skin wasn’t the color of that canvas

Their hopes and dreams become more transparent

Less solid

Less likely

Less known.

 

White privilege is a thing of the past

And remains a thing of the present.

“White” = “Right”

“White” = “pure”

White is safety from severe discriminatory acts for reasons unknown.

I,for one, am sick of it.

 

Black women fetishized

“Hey girl, you look like chocolate, can I have a taste?” as she walks by, head down no rebuttle

Men criminalized

“Boy, where are you going to in such a haste” pulled over as he walks, late to work

Both dehumanized. People who put more sweat, tears, and blood into our world through centuries of slavery and most still can't respect that. Their pain unacknowledged. Not seen as human

 

Hispanics trapped in the shackles labeled “drug lord” and “rapist”

They supposedly are all the same

Yet whites are the ones high off ignorance

Shooting up close mindedness in groups

Children getting second hand high

Picking up on the poisonous fumes, affecting their minds to act the way their parents do

On the drugs of racism. Discrimination, and the bitter, acidic taste of hate.

 

Muslims are automatically terrorists

Hiding automatics. Eyes stare at turbans and hijabs symbols of religion just like the cross, as they pass on the sidewalk. They think cruelly “where are the bombs at?”

But the deadliest of bombs are in their words

Causing the most destruction

 

Jews

Chinese

Japanese

All non-caucasion

races facing generalizations

 

Generalizing equals manifesting ignorance

equals racism

equals hate

equals crime

equals pain

equals destruction

 

Objectified! Criminalized! Fetishized! Dehumanized!

 

Costumes made to mock physical traits

To mock religion

To mock the race!

 

Dehumanized!

 

Still fighting for rights

Treated differently

Disrespected

Abused

 

Dehumanized!

 

Families fearing losing loved ones

Killed for the color of their skin

A lot not able to hear “I love you” again

Kids bullied in school and getting jumped for things they can't control

Asking “why?”

And their parents have to tell them they are not equal to the white men and women who walk the same ground as them.

 

They are not costumes

They are not unequal

They are not lesser than white

 

White is not greater than them

 

We are all meant to be equal!

 

What the hell even is white or black or anything in-between? Except a color? Why does it make such a difference in perspective? At the end of the day. We all are tired from trying to survive, to provide.

 

Our canvases are colorful: light and dark with different stories to tell. All valid.

 

If you say otherwise, still, think about this:

 

Take part of the life force

That pumps through our veins

From every person of color

And race

And tell me what's different,

What in this blood doesn't make them human.

 

The answer is nothing.

We all bleed red.

 

And enough has been shed.

 

So I ask:

Disregard the label of white

Black

Hispanic

Muslim

Chinese

Japanese

All of them

And replace them with human.

 

Because, at the end of the day, that is all we are, regardless.