Publisher's Synopsis
All of us have a potential for antiracism, yet it does not come by itself: it requires constant training!
This collection contains 50 powerful, transformative poems to reflect on the pervasiveness and oppressive power of Whiteness and to strengthen our antiracist consciousness and competence. Triggered by everyday forms of aggression, appalling events, and personal memories, these vibrant verses passionately summon us to dismantle the supremacy of the "invisible race" as well as any manifestation of bigotry, and to bring antiracist ideas and practices into the mainstream.
The poems, some of which are complemented by photographs in black and white, embrace Antiracism as a moral obligation, a liberating and empowering philosophy, and the key to envisaging a future based on social justice.
My race pops up
At every corner
It might be invisible
But not innocent
And hardly ever
Innocuous
A thought pushed back
The memory of an old fantasy
A revealing glance
An unreflective comment
The way I own the space
Or don't
A picture taken
A stupid assumption
A vote cast too quickly
A sense of entitlement
A self-defensive response
An arrogant blindness
Some sort of condescension
My sheer parenthood
The way I match the background
Or don't
My silence
Insidious by design
And more
Much more
Than the shades
Of my complexion
My race exudes
Through all my pores
As centuries of supremacy
Have gone deep
In shaping my identity
But I will not comply
And you shouldn't
Either
