white tears

I've been thinking more than I should lately about white tears....

Cry.

Let your tears fall. And may each droplet of fleeting, imagined pain bring you closer to your humanity.

Let the river that flows from you spill out into a sea of self-love.

Drown your white fragility in a tearful cascade of wypipo problems.

Cry because I called you racist.

Cry because you are racist.

Cry to avoid taking action.

Cry.

Let the tears caress your cheek.

Let them whisper to you that "everything will be ok."

Tears that invite you to love yourself...

more than you hate me.

Love yourself.

Love yourself so you don't have to hate me to feel here.

Love yourself so you can realize that Hating me will not allow you to float above all the chaos and destruction that you've introduced into both our lives.

Hating me will not render you floatable in the fucked up ocean your tears (and ideologies) created.

Cry.

Cry ashamed tears. Embarrassed tears; guilty tears. "but I'm a good person" tears.

"I never owned slaves" tears.

"I have a friend who is Black" tears.

"I teach Black students" tears.

"I don't see color" tears.

"Not all white people..." tears.

"I've done mission work in Africa" tears.

Cry because I have no tears left.

Cry for us.

We bled for you. Because of you.

Cry yourself to sleep so that you can dream. Dream of a world in which your life truly matters. One in which your existence doesn't depend on my inferiority; Doesn't require it.

Dream. Cry. Repeat. Love. Love yourself.

Perhaps, then you'll have no energy or space to hate me.

Cry.

Live.

Cry and then wake up only to find yourself in a pool of tears.

Then, look at my people wading in a sea of blood.

Cry again.

And when you finally stop crying....let me know cuz there's work to do.

.... Your tears will not wash away my oppression nor rinse the blood from your hands...cry.