America is not racist,

We just feel the need to let loose sometimes
And tell brown people they should go back
To where they came from
.
America is not racist,
We just feel the need to stop and frisk brown people
Demand that they produce their identification
And shoot them in the back when they try to comply.
America is not racist,
We just don’t think that brown people
Should live in our “gated communities”
,
Compete with us for jobs

Or go on dates with our daughters and sisters
.
America is not racist,
We’re all racist,
We all react to difference,
Real or perceived.
America is not racist,
We just let pink people do things
We would never let a brown person do

And call them whiners when they complain,
And tell them they got that position
Because they are brown

When it doesn’t fall to us.
America is not racist
We just fetishize our caricatures of brown lives
To magnify our own fear of the fantasy we have created.

To give us an excuse to pull that gun
To paint that swastika
On our own hearts,
To hang that noose
From the trees in our own home towns.

America is not racist,
We just dream dreams
Where brown men rape our daughters,
And brown women do our laundry,
And the unrecognized guilt
Drags those dreams kicking and screaming
To the range where we shoot targets
Wearing hoodies and baggy pants.

I’m telling you,
America is not racist.

State Capital building in Nashville  Tennessee
State Capital building in Nashville Tennessee

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