Racism poems confront prejudice and unequal treatment associated with race. A personal encounter, an inherited assumption, a public event, or a pattern of exclusion can become a way to reveal harm and challenge the beliefs that sustain it.
Read the examples below with attention to whose experience is being heard. Notice how the poem portrays people beyond the injustice they face. Concrete details can expose the effects of racism while giving expression to resistance, dignity, grief, and a demand for change.
F the police.
DEFUND the police.
Take their bullet proof vests,
And put a target on their chest,
So they can finally understand what it means to be defenceless,
Take their guns and their tasers,
So they can truly be powerless,
Let them understand their actions have consequences -
And we will never let them rest,
For every Black person a victim to their ‘arrest’,
Will get justice for their deaths,
F the police.
I will scream it with my chest,
F the police.
Until my last breath,
Revenge will be a dish we serve with no regrets
I thought I could create perfection -
I was wrong.
It wasn’t my fault -
No, not really,
I tried to make allies with a system that hates my colour,
And tried to fit in to beauty standards that never carried my size,
I played god with my body -
And in the end it didn’t work out,
I took out my weaknesses and replaced them with strengths,
Turns out my strengths were my weaknesses,
And my weaknesses were my strengths -
A lesson I learned too late,
A lesson I can’t replay.
Fate was an opponent already chosen by destiny,
Now when I look myself in the mirror,
The girl I see isn’t a winner,
I see a girl who once skipped dinner,
That led to a slippery slope of wanting to be thinner,
Her body saw her as a sinner,
Tried to heal but health came with a price, she got bigger,
Now she looks in the mirror disgusted by her figure,
And only then she would realise, she only looked good when she was sicker,
Happiness or health? - That question would forever linger.
Trees tilted,
Weighted by bodies hung,
The truth sits in the branches above,
The stench of death burrows,
Rotting the soil,
Growth killed by injustice itself,
Heavy is the tree who screams with no mouth,
Heavy is the tree with tears turned into a drought.
Swinging back and forth,
Onlookers filled with joy,
A Black body, a Black boy,
No more will he smile,
Just an empty shell -
Well, well, well,
A story as old as time -
A Black boy found dead in the south,
The story they will tell -
He hung himself.
The truth shall set you free,
And yet freedom only works when white holds the key,
The truth is ugly,
But dressed in a white cloak it becomes pretty,
The tree -
A silent witness to this tragedy
Julius Caesar hastened a decline in liberty
Roman rights abridged, from a partial democracy.
A leader can come in, and single handed attack
The freedoms people had, not easy to get back.
Germany was a democracy under Weimar
Then Hitler came in, they followed his star
Mussolini dismantled freedoms Italy had
Democracy is easy to lose, and that's sad.
Nicaragua was a democracy, then voted in Ortega
He said no more voting until we reach the planet Vega.
Venezuela voted in a populist red:
Now people shiver when secret police tread.
Turkey was free until Erdogan moved.
He jailed journalists, judges too.
It is like roach motel, no doubt.
You can check in to dictatorship, but you can't check out.
Some leaders won just enough of the vote
Some took a while to don the dictator coat.
But freedom is apparently not immune
to a strong leader sweeping it off with a broom.
Churchill was on Democracy's side
But said it's the worst system except for all that were tried.
We have trillions in debt, as far as the eye can see
And immigrants who don't all accept liberty.
So there's pressure to enter Roach Motel
Can we avoid it? Too early to tell.
Black or White
a common soul
Beneath the surface
of hate resold
Uncolored ground
that buries deep
A shared endowment
— to haunt our sleep
(Dreamsleep: August, 2026)
How
tragically
sad
it was
to look
at
the
local news
that day;
with my
coffee mug
in hand
after a
quiet night
with a book,
I learned
a wooden cross
was burnt
up
at a park
before
my people
on our
shared
glorious
urban
city streets,
while uprooted
trees
and debris
fought
harshly
in the wind.
If you
have never
met me
or tried
to understand
who I am
then why
should
I value
your opinion
about who
I am
and what
I feel
as an
autistic
person
of color?
Note: Sometimes people take what I write too literally hence the need for these notes. That being said, I am not actually asking any questions with this poem. However, in the face of discrimination, this is a common internal and external monologue. If you are an autistic person of color reading this, I see you. You are brave and resilient. Do not let anyone try to break you.
This sad old devil seems tragically nasty and cruel
Her creative writing is just not very helpful or cool
She needs to take her goofy old self back to school
Her fate is now a loose thread on a withering spool.
Note: dedicated to the late Dr. Jason Arday. I didn't like how that one lady talked about him and I'm glad people called it out.
Asian
American
African
Middle Eastern
Pacific People
Islanders
Now, They are White
Self ego ~ feeling pride in one's superiority to others ~ is a wall. You can make it littler or bigger or even zero.
Take a child, any child
And paint it any colour.
Place it in any mother’s arms,
Anywhere in the world: watch it grow.
Tell me now, who to blame for the disorder,
the chaos and prejudice in this anomalous world.
(3rd Placement Win in Line Gauthier's Bite Size No 150 contest)
Hell
Is
The
Worst
Thing
That
Can
Happen
To
You
The
Birth
Of
The
White
Race
Racism Categories
Definition | What is Racism in Poetry?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.
Related Poetry Forms
discrimination, bigotry, bias, segregation, apartheid, unfairness, partiality, one sidedness, racialism, sectarianism, illiberality,