I Am Not A Criminal or A Rapist.

Do I look like a criminal or rapist?

I'm not a criminal and I'm not rapist

I am angry.

I am angry that people who support Donald Trump are proud of it

I am angry that I'm gay and Mexican and colleges make it feel like a privilege when my whole life it's felt like a burden

I am angry that I came here without a choice

I am angry that my mom felt she had no other choice but to come here

I am angry that my mom thinks I don't appreciate her hard work

But mom I do please know that I do

I am  angry that this is the home of the brave and the land of the free but we are not free from the fears that keep us from being brave

I am angry that I am too Mexican for my friends and I'm too white for my family

I am  angry that white people who were also immigrants call other immigrants words filled with filth and poison

I am angry that some of you thought, "Well not all white people" instead of, "oh that's true"

I am angry that I was shamed for speaking Spanish but it is always the white hyper masculine voice that seems to be the proudest

I am angry that you think it's weird that I say my words with a little more flavor  

I am angry that I ever wished I was white

I am angry that there are Latino kids growing up wishing they were white because they see white privilege everywhere

I am angry that when I tell someone I'm Mexican they respond, "Oh but you don't act or look mexican"

Mexicans don't look like your Halloween costume

I am angry that you made a  joke about immigrants

And while I laugh in fear at your joke...FUCK YOUR JOKE

I am angry that the punchline in your joke hides the thousands of names  of families risking their lives to leave their unfair governments

I am angry your solution to this problem is "Go back to your country" when I can't

I am angry I know my grandma will one day die and I can't leave this country to see how the wrinkles on her face have aged since I last

saw them when I was 8

I am angry you don't believe me when I say I love this country

 

I am angry that I love this country

It makes me angry that my patriotism is now being questioned

It makes me angry that I know the history of the 13th colonies but none of the presidents of Mexico and my patriotism is still being questioned

It makes me sad that we can't coexist

It makes me sad you don't see the Latinos working in factories

Latinos working in the fields

Latinos working in restaurants

Latinos working in offices

Latinos working,always working

Always working twice as hard to get what our Caucasian counterpart get for granted

I am the dirt under the nails of past immigrants who have worked at a field

I am the bags under the exhausted eyes of the single mother coming home at 3 am from her second job.

I am not a criminal.

I am not a rapist

I am an undocummented teen

I am more than a 9 digit number

This poem is about: 
Me
My family
My community
My country
Our world

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