Let’s talk about race.

Diversity asks,

“Who is in the room?”

Silence and omission,

Mouths muzzled shut.

Loaded clip- ammunition,

Fingering the trigger,

Now is the moment,

Cock it back, unload it.

Tongue swollen with anger and hurt.

Chained up words rattle at their cage,

Clawing against concrete,

They demand to be heard.

Bloodied fingernails trace over raw flesh,

Assess the damage, but no time passes as

Salt pours overtop open wounds-

God did not knit man together in our mother’s wombs,

For us all to be born equal in an unequal world.

Talking about race isn’t racist.

Think.

Whose presence in the room is at a constant risk for erasure?

Too much time spent like dogs, forced to eat scraps that have fallen from the table, when their place setting was always meant to be at the head of it.

This room has always been big enough for me and you, it was never meant to be divided in two.

Talking about race isn’t racist.

Teaching the belief that race shouldn’t matter,

Inherently provides the notion that race doesn’t matter.

You hear,

“I don’t see color- I just see people”.

“If we stopped pointing out race, then everyone would be equal”.

But, talking about race isn’t racist.

Racial tension is a reality. Rather, racial socialization allows for opportunity.

But apparently it has made it on the list of topics

That “polite” people do not discuss

Or is it just a topic that white people do not discuss?

Diversity: a fact in the room, but inclusion,

It is a choice to let them sit at the table.

Talking about race isn’t racist.