Colour Barrier

Truth is I see colour.

It’s something I don’t want to see,

But until the scales of equality balance

I have to see difference.

You see, I see white everywhere.

In “multi-cultured” institutions

I see white at the helm.

Government, police and judiciary.

Media, finance and industry.

From capitalism to capital punishment,

And yes, in my mirror…

I see white.

In the language used,

I’ve had to undo years of being fed

That good comes in white packages,

Yet the Messiah Himself was not.

So let me say as a Christian,

Hallelujah, I see the dark and it is good.

Language warped, as my church has been,

To justify a Passage… not of scriptures,

But of the Middle of the Atlantic,

As African bones line the floor of an ocean,

That created a diaspora away from home,

As the church preached

White was right.

I untangle expressions like "black day"

Into a positive 24 hour period.

Frankly it’s white I see in evil power,

So I won’t indoctrinate my children

To form their mouths into first words

Of a treacherous euro babble.

The seeds of racism grow

In the unconscious mind.

So I will be awake to race,

Colour, creed and faith.

To ask me not to see colour

Ignores the legacy of my white face.