I am not white

A Poem by LisaButterfly

So it just recently that I has a realisation that I am not white.

I had been chasing whiteness my whole life and then it suddenly dawned on me.

I don't want to be

But then who am I if I am not you

I have moved too far away from where I began to return

And now I am in no woman's land

Nether here nor there

You see I am not like you and you are not like me

Your dad didn't have to tape his knuckles and prepare himself for a battle against racism

And your uncles idol is not al Pacino

And your cousins don't recite the whole script of the godfather every Christmas lunch

And your grandparents didn't have to work in factories all their life

And then never get recognised

But nobody ever told me

I thought I had to be like you

Because that was the normal

And there were certainly no reflections on me anywhere

Nor of my family on the t.v

So I was lost and confused and I wanted to be you without knowing I could just be me

Now things are different

I don't want to turn my brown eyes blue

I am me and I certainly don't want to be you

I won't mimic you and I invite you not to mimic me