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What is white?
  The ironies of the question and the implications
    Are really quite extraordinary ...
      For WHITE, specifically
        Is the ABSENCE of all color.

If "white supremacists" truly took the term seriously
  They'd know that they have completely misrepresented themselves
    And that the term "white"
      Is the most all-inclusive term possible
        If taken literally ...

Oh, I'm sure they'd come up with some absurd rationalization
  Or a term far more hateful and divisive
    (Cause that's what they're about, after all)
      But I'd love to make them aware of that reality just the same
        Just to watch them squirm a bit.

But I'm a realist, overall, and that's what "white" means to me
  A lack of all color, distinctly.
    I don't like labels ...
      And I don't like being called "white" ... it doesn't fit
        I'm sort of tan, if you must know,

And it changes throughout the year
  And sometimes by the minute ...
    Depending on the amount of time I get in the sun
      Or the amount of time I've spent shoveling or blowing snow, (yuck!)
        Or, quite possibly, how much wine I've had with dinner

But I'm not, nor have I EVER been, remotely "white".
  If we applied that word to society as a whole
    We'd ACTUALLY be saying that mankind is colorless
      And while it's also not remotely accurate
        It would be wonderful if we saw each other that way ... colorless, I mean.

But color, like religion and politics and size and sex and ...
  Oh, EVERYthing, really
    Is something that makes us who we are
      The differences that make us unique and special creations
        And ALL those things should be embraced ...

And celebrated ...
  For our differences are the things that denote individuality
    And SHOULDN'T be things to divide us
      But rather things that bring us together ...
        As individuals ...

Not incite fear and bias and hatred.
  So, please don't ever call me "white"
    UNLESS you mean what the WORD truly means - colorless
      Because that's how I see myself spiritually
        And in relation to my fellow humans.

But if you're talking skin tone
  Try "light tan", that's probably closest ...
    And I'm proud to be the shade I am, (whatever that may be)
      Cuz I doubt there's anyone else
        That's exactly the same ...

And the fact that there's probably no one else in the world
  Who's EXACTLY the same skin tone as anyone ELSE
    Is one MORE good reason
      Why it shouldn't matter ... 
        At ALL.

Ever.




* Written and submitted on January 17, 2018, for the "What Is White?" Poetry Contest, Debbie Guzzi, Sponsor. *
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