I Was Blind to Race(ism)

“Why is she black?”
Why did he ask?
I didn’t know dad was a bigot and would
recite one incident that made them all bad

I didn’t grow up around black people
So how was I to know he didn’t have a clue
His question was a shock that really hurt
It was the beginning of my awareness, my part

Mom accepted her without a blink
No rude questions or look
It told me so much about her
She cherished her granddaughter

My cousin said I should’ve “announced” she was black
before she was born, protect our grandparents from the shock.
What is wrong with them?
Why do they only see her skin?

Surrounding us with good people, we felt loved
But I still had much to learn about this disease
the contagion of ignorance running through my race
It was sickening and I didn’t realize it would get worse

A new millennium came and yet it didn’t go away
Ignored in a restaurant, skipped over and waiting
Am I being too sensitive? Nope, I could see the hate
Judging a book by its cover seems the human fate

Ignore them, be smarter than them, they’ll go away
We’ll travel through the south and limit our stay
But they grow and they fester, damn it – they procreate!
Why do family values now include hate?

I didn’t see it when I was younger. It turns out I’m glad
It could have made me ignorant like them if I’d seen it in dad
Are they blind; she’s my baby, a human being
Why does it matter what color she came in?