It begins

With mild distaste,
Dislike you can’t quite place,

Stepping back a little,
To warily consider
The odious ‘other’,

*It begins *

With aloofness
Steeped in power and privilege,

Dark prejudice based
On assumptions about race
You’ve never really traced
Back to the deep place…
Where distorted myths
About black inferiority
Criminality,
Degeneracy,
Threats to security,
THRIVE,

Giving rise

To the black reality
Of being racialised,
Beaten and brutalised,
Clubbed in the head
And shot dead,

The deep humiliation,
Trauma and pain
Of bowed heads and shoulders,
Repeated, deferential, ‘_yes sirs_’,
In vain hope of deflecting
Cold murder

And yet,

If those with courage and conscience,
Propel those with less

To deconstruct,
Unlearn,
Disperse
Hatred
Within,

*Healing *
*Just *
*Might *
Begin

Fatema Valji