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Best Racism Poems | Poetry

Below are the all-time best Racism poems written by Poets on PoetrySoup. These top poems in list format are the best examples of racism poems written by PoetrySoup members

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The Best Racism Poems

Details | Racism Poem |

To those that say All Lives Matter when we say Black Lives Matter

You say all lives matter
Bringing up all these colors 
Like red, white, orange, and blue
But when a black life is taken, where on Earth are you?
Where's your sympathy and support when the takers of our lives get off Scott-free in court?
Why weren't you at the rally?
Why weren't you at the protest?
You say all lives matter then reveal yourself to be a hypocritical mess.
Why are you more upset at the march of an activist feet
And the words that were in his speech
Than you are at the fact that another black body lies bleeding in the street?
Why don't you demand justice when it's our lives they are taking? 
Why don't you demand truth as the media is muckraking?
Dessiminating misinformation, and sometimes straight up lies, while ensuring we become nothing but criminals in your eyes?
Not husbands, sons, daughters, loved ones, or wives
None of that is left after we've been demonized, had our humanity stripped and been reduced to part crimes. 
Oh but they'll tell the story of the killer, saying he's gentle and wouldn't hurt a fly
When he just might shoot the wings off the black angel if he saw it in the sky?
Why???
To put it simply, he's racist
And that could just be implicit bias
Not always blatant hatred
Either way when he sees the color of my skin my life is no longer as sacred
As a matter of fact the color of it means I'm a threat
And in that moment all training and restraint he forgets
He overreacts 
Our of his own cowardice and fear
Pulls the trigger back and 
BANG
Another one of us is no longer here...
An instance of disregard and violence 
Repeated so much throughout this nation's history
But we won't live in silence in the face of this danger and misery
We've dealt with it since slavery when they put us on the boat
To two years ago
When Eric Garner was choked
You don't care about
The damage, pain, anguish, and tears
Dealt by the oppression and violence we've suffered all these yearsIn fact All Lives matter
You're complicit in these things
You'd say it wasn't true
But when a black life is taken where on Earth are you?
Our here characterizing the entire movement 
By the actions of the outside few
Calling us dangerous, cop killers
When that's not even what we do
We want to be able to exercise our rights freely
We want changes in policy
As well as accountability
Consequences for those who inflict this brutality
But as we do our work to change the system from the outside and within
You act as if we've committed some sort of sin
Saying we don't care about others 
And it's not about race
Never mind the fact that we are killed at a much higher rate
Sharing stories of white people who are brutalized and ask for our repentance
Purposefully leave out the fact that THAT officer got a sentence
Saying "You ignore the taking of others lives. That ain't right"
Rhetorical question
If a white person is brutalized 
Is it ever BECAUSE they're white???
See we go through these things because we are black
And its an understanding or concern about this, that you seem to lack.
Saying all lives matter
To silence our voices on something that matters to US
And through erasure send us to the back of the social justice bus
So I could ask again why
When one of our lives are taken 
From you there's no anger, outrage, our outcry
I won't, I already know
It's because from the start
All Lives matter
Wasn't anything but a lie

Details | Racism Poem |

Notes on Dating a Latino: What You Don't Learn in High School Spanish Class

One. Latino boys like Buffalo Wild Wings. It isn't clear why, but it's definitely emerging as a pattern.

Two. Latino boys are persistent. When he asks to kiss you for the first time, say no. Why? Because you've known him for a matter of weeks and he is not your boyfriend yet. Don't worry... he will continue to ask every week until you say yes.

Three. Latino boys are really good kissers.

Four. Latino boys love their family. His cousins are best friends, so you probably already know several of them. If any of his cousins also like you, you might think this is problematic. Your boyfriend will tell you that it's normal, and it's just because they're jealous, and not to worry about it. You will probably worry about it anyway. Sometimes it's better to let things go.

Five. Latino boys are romantic. He will tell you how he loves you in two languages and struggle to find an apt metaphor which he can pronounce in the English language. Since his English isn't perfect, he uses his hands to compensate when he speaks, uses a tilt of his head, a shift in his voice; he says most with his eyes, when he isn't speaking at all.

Six. Notice how he lights up when he smiles at you, like the sunrise... remember that the word for smile in Spanish is sonrisa.

Seven. When he offers to teach you the meringue, say yes. When you trip over each other's feet, laugh. When his face moves close to yours... kiss him.

Eight. When your racist father starts talking about socioeconomic classes, remind him that unlike your brother's American friends, your friends are sober. (Well, more sober. Do not bring up tequila. They're not potheads, at least.) Besides, your Spanish teacher is thrilled with your miraculous improvement in spoken Spanish.

Nine. When you go bowling with him and his cousins and he whispers in your ear that people are staring at us, tell him it's just because they're jealous that I have a boyfriend that will dance with me in public.

Ten. "Te amo" is a phrase that sounds prettiest when whispered.

Details | Racism Poem |

I Have Hidden Super Powers

I don't wear a cape around
My neck, breaking the speed of sound
Or capture bad guys in a web
My powers have never fled
From my heart that's where they stay
Secretly until the day
I see injustice come along
Others are treated so wrong
My super powers become stronger
When I can't take it any longer
Hearing stories of bullying
My special skills kick right in
Set loose, no holding them back
My love alert goes on attack
Not stopping for anything
It won't ease up until I bring
All this hatred to a low
I give one huge final blow
Across the land until there is
No more hate or prejudice
Until then, I'm on alert
Making sure there is no hurt
I will be here till the end
All my powers I will send
Into the hearts of those so weak
Mild mannered, shy and meek
That get pushed around each day
I'll make sure it goes away
This promise will be kept for sure
Any kind of hatred I abhor

Details | Racism Poem |

Hashtag My Life Matters

#MyLifeMatters

My hands are up don't shoot!!

I'm a black man, with feelings and a valued life,
Please, I've done nothing wrong, point the gun the other way.
At my home, it holds the love of my valued wife,
There's no kids, but we talk of having children one day.

Is my tail light busted, was I speeding too fast?
If so I apologize, may not have been paying attention.
So what made you suspicious sir of me through the dash?
Tell me now, in the future I can maybe prevent it.

Don't want to be a statistic, I will soon be forgotten
After my brief CNN mention of me being shot.
Of me being SHOT, dash cam flashing non stop when
The masses see another man dead by the hands of a cop.

My hands are up DON'T SHOOT I didn't kill 9 members
Of a church, I don't even have a weapon to cause hurt.
My hands are up DON'T SHOOT I'm 3 credits away from my degree
Check my I.D. no history of batteries or felonies.

At my home, it holds the love of my valued wife,
There's no kids, but we talk of having children one day.

#MyLifeMatters

Written on 12/7/2015 @ 6:10am EST

Details | Racism Poem |

Take out the Landry


 Take Out the Landry

Dirty laundry for years on the floor
finally the dirt is out the door
Quebec is cleaning house
separatists being laid to graves
like Napoleonic mouse's
bury their rhetoric too
twelve feet deep

Wrinkled ex leader with
no musket or balls
no lead, leaderless
man of poisoned dreams
nationalist and king of hate
trumpets play for his distaste
if your wool is not pure
you do not belong on his shore

Villain as Lucifer or Lucien 
robbing the people of their future
all for his midget delusions
now to be inhumed
in his own dirt
he will of course blame
the Chinese laundry mat
who lost his ticket

He is not to be interred
in red rags
honor will shed not one tear
where is his Nazi flag?

Boxed at Notre Dame
the church like Vichy
honors dictators and their clan
funerals they all say nice things
still
they toss out the laundry
as Canada sings

Only Toronto thanks him
for the prosperity

Details | Racism Poem |

11-9-2016

11-9-2016

On Election night, twentysixteen
I saw a strange and surreal scene
I looked cross the great harbor at Lady Liberty that night
And I knew right away, something wasn’t right
I saw Lady Liberty and she was crying
Because the America she loved, now was dying

She once welcomed millions to this golden shore
But now they ‘re not welcome here anymore
I thought of Ellis Island, where they once came through the doors
Millions of feet crossing the Great Hall’s floors

They brought their hopes, they brought their dreams 
They brought their plans, they brought their schemes
They brought their laughter, they brought their tears
They brought their love and they brought their fears

They came with their families or came alone
Some names we know, but most unknown

They joined the huddled masses already here
The marginalized, the forgotten, the second-class tier
The wretched refuse that made this land great
Yet met with derision, scorn and hate

the First Peoples of this Mother Earth
forced off the land of their ancestors birth
forced to flee, run and hide
one step ahead of the Genocide

those that suffered from old Jim Crow
pleading for rights, met with a NO
When they were polite and asked with a Please
They were met with a Noose thrown over the trees

Many worked hard and were met with success
Their children grew up to be America’s best
Many here now forget where they came
Their immigrant ancestor, can’t remember the name
Can’t remember the ancestor that came here by boat
Can’t remember the issues or the last vote

Once we were great but that’s in the past
Don’t blame us that it didn’t last
Our country is changing from sea to sea
Too many people not like me

The only way is to take it back
go out and stop them, go on the attack
The others are the people that caused our pain
Push them all out,  again we will gain

So he vowed an America, that’s once again great
To get there, he said, America must hate
Hate those others that are not like us
Put them again on the back of the bus
America first! and thats not all
protect ourselves, lets build a wall
We can bring back the greatness of a past day
All we have to do is chant U-S-A

The lamp beside the golden door
Doesn’t seem so bright anymore

It sounds so simple, but it’s really so Grand
An idea we once used to build this land
E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One
An idea that that’s Sinking with the Setting Sun

By John Gordon

Best Racism Poems | Poetry

The Best Racism Poems

I Can't Breathe

One World

Middle Aged White Guy

Colors

Be Free, My Brothers

Untouchable II

A SLave's Cry

Don't Judge Me for Existing

LET ME BELONG

Chains of Colonialism

Intolerable

Racism

Daughter of Oak and Ash

COLOUR

Internet Trolls

Basketball is for Everybody

POVERTY DEFINES TRUE WEALTH

To those that say All Lives Matter when we say Black Lives Matter

The Color of Space

Trapped

Notes on Dating a Latino: What You Don't Learn in High School Spanish Class

I Have Hidden Super Powers

Hashtag My Life Matters

Take out the Landry

11-9-2016