I am a very nice white man.
I don’t hate black people.
I’m cordial and polite.
In fact, I have several black friends.
I prefer Lester Holt
to the other two anchors.
I have marched for racial justice.
I’m admire the courage of Kaepernick
for taking a national knee.
I hire a black man to train me
once a week, thus keeping me
strong-hearted and physically fit.
So when I hear of white racism
I think of other people and wish
they could be liberal like me.
When Trayvon Martin was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Philander Castile was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Michael Brown was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When the prayers in Charleston were killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Freddie Gray was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Tamir Rice was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Eric Gardner was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Breonna Taylor was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When Ahmaud Arbery was killed.
I felt bad but that did no good.
When George Floyd was killed,
I felt bad but that did no good.
But now~in this moment of truth,
I feel an unwelcome odd gratitude
for Amy Cooper and Derek Chauvin
who inadvertently stripped naked in public
revealing beyond the shadow of a platitude
the white flesh and white blood of racism,
the outlined structure of skeletal bones
brandishing privilege just beneath
our systemically favored white skins.
Now, for the good of the nation,
we must not unsee what we saw,
even though what we saw was seen
a hundred times before.
Now we have seen too much
and that must be more than enough.