Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with the way we sit here,
Waiting to die by a police officer’s gun.
Waiting to be the next dead African American on the news.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with Native Americans watching in horror,
As their traditions are faded away with time and hate,
Bigots sweeping them under the rug and turning their nose away like they don’t even exist.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with Asian Americans being bullied,
People asking if they’re from our country and if they’re related to Jackie Chan.
The government stalking them like hawks ever since Pearl Harbor.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with Muslims trying to enjoy their lives, while you scream that they’re terrorists.
Yanking scarfs off of them and crying that their watch is a bomb, seeing an innocent man as nothing but a villain.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with the way you lean close to Hispanics and slowly ask them to clean your house for you, whether they’re your maid or not.
Ending your sentences with bits and pieces of spanish, as if to make everything in your tiny world right again.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with the way you look at Jewish people,
Constantly wondering if they have an urge to pick up that dirty penny they saw on the ground, and hoard it for themselves.
Something is wrong with this.
Something is wrong with the way the world around us insists that this is okay,
Looking at the deaths and discrimination of innocent people as if it were nothing.
Turning a blind eye to the pain of the people.
Allowing people to feel unsafe in their own country, but knowing that there’s nowhere else to go that isn’t ruled by the same hate.
Allowing kids to feel confused by the world around them, wondering why they aren’t like everybody else, and wondering what they could do to be just like them.
Allowing the media to stand behind the curtain and sway the hearts and minds of millions,
Until they’re all zombies with a hazy mindset clouded by lies and ignorance and hate.
Something is wrong with this world.
Something is wrong with the lack of love in it.
I hope I one day live to see a future,
Where everyone from everywhere and every background can come together and join hands,
Nothing offensive said between them.
Everyone brave enough to take the first step,
In pushing past the stereotypes and labels burned into their brains.
In finding something else besides that single story they’ve been told over and over again.
But until we get it together,
And stop treating our fellow man like animals just because of something so insignificant to their true personality,
Something will always be wrong with this world.
And something will always be wrong with the way we see one another.
The faith I have in this world and it’s ability to change is beginning to diminish,
But I’m determined to never lose hope.
Because something is wrong with a black girl losing faith in the world around her.
But nothing is wrong with a black girl staying optimistic until the end.