To all the white children in Elementary School:

You're lucky, they'll say
that in this day in age
you're in Southern California
where racism hides,
for you are Colorblind

But what does this mean?
If white is the absence of color
what does this teach?

That we need to take away identity
and replace all color with white?
To give back rights that were never given
so that the ignorant can sleep better at night?
That's not right

“We're not racist,
we just have to look past
race
sexuality
religion
to end this division
so we, the privileged whites, can finally have peace of mind
and paint over discrimination without a trace”

Elsie Roxborough: a black woman who passed for white
took her own life as her own identity she tried to fight,
though she tired with all her might
to make herself believe she was white,
in her head there was only gray,
leaving her in the fog of dismay, asking:
  “Who am I?”
“Why am I here?”
“It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair”
for being white meant replacing the ones who gave her life
with the knife of confusion

Because where does it leave you?
When the world refuses to see you?
When they strip you of identity,
so that they can have serenity

Leelah Alcorn: girl born a boy
took her own life,
after a seventeen year long strife of :
“It's just a phase”
leaving her in a maze of:
“Who am I?”
“Why am I here?”
“Why did God curse me?”
“It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair.”
Because the world refused to see her

Whether it be because of race or sexuality,
please acknowledge reality,
that the ones with stolen identity
end up dead.