What We're Taught

Armies of men fall at the feet of Beauty, and we're taught that women are weak.

 

Men watch their brothers transform into monsters, and we're taught that real men don't cry.

 

Brown Americans burn and bleach their skin shades whiter, and we're taught the ashes are beautiful.

 

Black Americans work until their feet break under pressure to rise, and we're taught they won't make it because they don't work hard enough.

 

Asian Americans descend from empires of history and power, language and culture, and we're taught that the way they speak isn't normal.

 

Indigenous people of America own the land their ancestors were slaughtered for, own the red soil splattered with their blood, own every inch of land that they are pushed away from, and we're taught that they willingly gave it up to the white man.

 

Education gives us the knowledge we need to rise, shows us the colors of our world, the darkness underneath the plastic layers of Beauty.

 

Fear us now, white man, for Education has come. 

 

We will Educate.

This poem is about: 
My country

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