Linda Stehling: poem
THE MANY FACES OF WHITE
There's the my best friend is black, what you want me to come to your house
for dinner, we don't have that kind of friendship white
There's the I know where y'all are coming from white
Yeah, right.
There's the I'm not prejudice, I gave to the United Negro College fund,
pacifying the masses white.
There's the we are the Master Race,
afraid to let go of the status quo white
and the denying the truth, denying the history, I don't want to know your
plight white.
There's the I watch Oprah, except on Martin Luther King's birthday because I
really, really don't want to know your plight white
There's the I'm proud to be a racist, slave owner, KKK, Aryan Nation, white
supremacist, it is my God given right white
There's the Brown Sugar you taste so fine I'll meet you at the back door
after midnight white
and the don't be mixin' up the races white, I'm not a bigot when I
humiliate, emasculate, dominate and segregate, I just want
to keep my race pure white
There's the sometimes I'm ashamed to be white, white
and the I am ashamed of the grainy black and white clips on talk shows
and late night TV white
Police dogs, fire hoses, the National Guard,
the nine harassed school kids from Little Rock.
Ashamed of the smoldering churches, four little dead girls,
crosses blazing on the front lawns,
widows burying dead husbands because they stood up
and left their places to fight for Civil Rights.
Mississippi burned with white rage.
Birmingham burned with white rage.
Rosewood burned with white rage.
Ashamed of the hangings, the beatings,
the turn on your own kind for doing what is right white.
There's the its not like that anymore rhetoric white.
Ask James Byrd what it's like.
There's the I'm afraid to step up to the front line,
afraid to upset the apple cart,
keeping the gate between the races tightly closed white.
There's the I know what is right from wrong white,
but I blind my eyes with rose tinted glasses so I can't see
the good Christian, clutch my purse tighter
there is a black man walking behind me white.
Or the Bible thumpin', tithe your ten per cent to me,
kill the inner city school breakfast program,
the Lord helps those who help themselves
holier than thou preacher man white.
Or the stereotypin', fried chicken, watermelon eatin',
black baby kissin' wipe my lips discreetly,
forget you the day after election day politician white
telling us drugs are a problem in the ghettos.
Robert Downey, Jr. - white.
Jim Morrison - white.
River Phoenix - white.
Janis Joplin - white.
Telling us violence is a problem in the projects.
Pearl, Mississippi - white.
Peduka, Kentucky - white.
Woodstock '99 - white
Columbine - white.
Then there's the trying to understand,
willing to listen, willing to learn,
and the truth hurts white
and the seeing past the lies,
standing up, stepping up,
trying to make it right white.
Abolitionist - white.
Freedom Fighters - white.
Sign up to vote college kid - dead white.
These are some of the many faces of white.
So White, which one is yours?
Linda Stehling's work has appeared previously in The Iconoclast, The Cavalcade of Poetry and Prose, and
One Fell Swoop. She has performed her work at many East Coast venues including a spot on Temple
University radio. She is the host of the Battle of the Poets Slam in Bridgeton, NJ and the managing editor
of The Labyrinth. This is her first appearance in a Asterius Press publication.
