Dismantling white power

There used to be something

inside of me

that resisted the call to fight

Injustice

but longed to run away

shield my eyes

in an ivory tower filled with ignorance and lies

of the broken world surrounding me

Somewhere safe

Somewhere comfortable

I was going to run away to Uncle Tom’s cabin

a safe haven

Where I could put miles of trees

between me and the City,

where all the “problems” happen

But when I looked around

my safe hiding place,

suburbanite countryside

all I saw was white.

And I thought,

Where is the color?

Is the pure part of michigan purely white?

Purely middle class?

Cause that’s all that I see

It’s easy to be colorblind when all you encounter is white.

We cling to the past

in our old cadillacs

and our quaint little cabins

We still hum those old tunes

digging those rhythmic blues

longing for the good old days

of porch rockers and lemonade

reminiscing in a haze

to a time when

chivalry brought the bling

and everybody acted proper

and all of America was adamantly Christian

But that generation brought one

that rejected this religion

and oh, can’t we go back

to when everything was white and black

including the television

yet white reigned supreme.

But no, we need a NEW vision

I’m leaving  the past in the dust

to embrace the present is a must

and prepare for the future

As charming and quaint as that old life might be

it’s not for me

I’m not going down that deadstream

I’ve peeled back the dead white skin

revealed beneath the pure white skeleton

of a life that clings to things long gone

But there is something wrong in the present

and I can’t ignore it