Blood Quantum

Despite my percentage          
I'm classified White—            
been so all my life            
            
because I'm privileged            
in a country where modern history            
favors ivory pastels            
of a monarchy          
over the red-skinned origins        
of its own country          
           
I survived desegregation  
in deep south Mississippi—            
brutal fights            
bathroom tiles splattered    
with skin            
           
—shards of teeth              
floating as white discs            
amid a bubbly pulse            
circling a rusted drain            
           
We can pity those impoverished—            
donate to food banks;            
but, until hunger cracks its whip  
across our spine. . .         
we won't know what it's like            
           
Linking elbows side x side—          
marching streets, demanding justice            
won't make our skin Black            
—we know that  
we get it;           
           
we will always be privileged Whites            
despite the blood quantum            
our Black husbands, wives            
or even children comprise;            
           
they will never be viewed            
as privileged Whites—            
but a half or fourth or sixteenth            
—of something else            
           
Yet, we'll continue to resist inequality            
  in this broken dream of America—            
this fucked up patriarchy            
of privileged Whites—              
until one day            
White privilege will cease to exist            
           
Until that manifests, and it will            
I won't pretend to understand            
what it's like to be you—            
nor if I'll witness it come to pass  
during my life            
           
But, I will fight regardless            
for a future where my grandson            
—or his own, isn't viewed  
as a privileged White person            
 
but a human despite percentage  
of his blood quantum            
~