WHAT IS RACISM?

WHAT IS RACISM?

What is racism?

Some people call it

The true face of fascism,

And the true calling of the Nazi regime.

Is racism just about color?

Is it white against black?

Is it black against white?

Or is it even black against black?

I know that there are different terms

And different faces of it.

So what is it?

A trusted source informed me

That racism also means

Urban black against rural black.

Is racism the placard 

That many disillusioned blacks carry as

They chant through streets that have monuments?

Or is it the pressure that

Africans and African governments daily feel from Western governments?

Is racism found 

In the green card 

That has thrice been denied

To those of steadfast African pride?

Or is it in the "blackish" racial slurs

That we blacks often point towards those that are white?

Is racism and segregation

The selfish pride with which we

Boast about our different tribes?

Or is it a thing as trivial as

The subtle differences between you and I?

Huh!!! Man!!! you tell me,

There is an ongoing Ugandan notion

That the Baganda and the Banyankole

Cannot sit at the same table

Nor look each other in the eye;

That the north and south of Sudan

Cannot come together to make peace.

This is what racism really is;

The dividing lines are not just drawn by color,

It is not just as simple as black versus white.

No, it is the line that is drawn between you and I.

It is that time;

When I turn my face away from my brother's eye,

It is that time when we close our

Homes to the people that war is trying to find.

It is that day;

When to our brothers and sisters

We stop being kind.

It is the act of our hearts being blind

To the plight of our fellow mankind;

Be him black, brown, purple or white.

It is the short and fast exit

That was taken by the proponents of Brexit.

Racism is when we think that we are too superior

That we turn our backs from humanity,

From brotherhood;

Be him black, brown, purple or white.

A Poem written by Bruno Edgard.