Why All the Black Kids in My Intro to Macroeconomics Course at Middlebury Stopped Enjoying Rainbows

After Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

 By: Charles Alexander Rainey 

ode to the results of the inequality survey my econ professor gave out in class / about five weeks ago / the ones that rattled the fibers that make up my skin / almost like the chains that used to drape from the hallow limbs of those that came before me / in response to the whopping 40 percent of students in this class / a class as white as republican jesus himself / claiming to have experienced discrimination / based on the Color of their skin / and to myself i ponder on / how easy it is for white Light to mimic / any Color it pleases / and how all it takes is the help / of a prism / or a few raindrops / to bend reality / and distort the truth / how that beam of privilege / can become everything it is not / for the briefest of instants / or minutes / or however long it took / to complete this anonymous survey / and to myself i wonder / if these white folk even see Color / if we are even on the same Wavelength / if they would even know / where to place the prejudice / they demonstrated by their claim / on this beautiful and blinding / Spectrum of racism / i like to call / america / i contemplate how little time / and effort / was required for my white peers to camouflage into / my daily struggle / when its Color / doesn’t even appear / on Light’s visible spectrum / when the naked eye of the white liberal / was not even capable of detecting my hardships / before November 8th / and isn’t that funny / isn’t that hilarious / and by hilarious i mean amazing / how my white peers / continue to find ways / to appropriate my condition / or gentrify my adversity / even when the mechanism to do so don’t even got a nice beat to it / i’m sayin’ / if a nigga can’t even have his woes / what can a nigga have / i’m just sayin’ / if a nigga can’t even have the word ‘nigga’ / what can a nigga have / and to myself i marvel at how / this white Light is capable of being both / the root of the reckoning and the martyr / how after it completes the act / of passing through / a time-warped lens / it falsely assumes / it has the birthright / to dip its big toe into / our bittersweet kool-aid / the same kool-aid that mama / did her best to doctor up / for me and five others / to have with each of our meals that never failed to reflect / the hard times / and the rough fines life chose / to sanction on my family’s grind / in our constant endeavor to cross the fault lines / drawn by the colorblind / and i think to myself / how cunning it is to inhabit a façade based on a reality you perpetuate / and still have the audacity / to call its aftermath / a rainbow