Should it matter to me that this land was taken
In another lifetime before I was born
Stolen from the Native Americans brutally forced off?
Should it matter to me that African people were stolen away
Chained and lashed and worked to death here
If I was not their slave master overseer?
That history lurks in the white psyche as a fearsome truth
With or without recognition of the position we inherited
We whose not so distant ancestors were the perpetrators.
After all the denial and excuses and apologies are done
That sordid past remains a fact with consequences today
Begging the question of how to right this wrong.
Mostly we whites live our separate lives in our separate spaces
Seldom confronted with the reality that people of color face
Perhaps mindless of our advantages of race and class
Perhaps fully aware and determined to hold on to it
Opposed to reparations or any kind of compensation
As if acknowledgement takes anything from us.
As much as the racism of white nationalists is obvious
The whites who think they are not racist but go along
They also perpetuate the injustice and oppression.
But more now support equal rights and self determination
Than what I remember from when I was young
And I see more people happily commingle in public.
Every advance meets with reaction trying to turn it back
Until a new push forward overcomes the resistance
Sustaining progress takes persistence.
