By Button Poetry
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Chanel Gomaa, performing at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:02
I have this lisp that likes to trip up my tongue sometimes.
00:05
So words like “run” will become “one.”
00:08
“Rise” becomes “wise.”
00:10
“Rabbit” becomes “wabbit.”
00:11
It’s really frickin’ annoying.
00:13
And “right” becomes “White.”
00:15
As in “I tried to write about what’s right,”
00:18
and it all comes out “White.”
00:21
Writing out my ideas becomes “whiting out my ideas.”
00:25
I guess as long as I sound White, I’m right, White?
00:28
Er… right?
00:30
As long as I tell you my mom is White
00:32
before I tell you my dad is a Muslim immigrant,
00:35
you’ll see me as a bright star that belongs here,
00:38
instead of code wed–
00:39
I mean code red and smoke-filled blue sky.
00:43
I mean, I still believe in destiny,
00:46
and I am always White where I need to be–
00:48
I mean right where I need to be.
00:50
I only write what I know
00:51
because people won’t argue with you when you’re White–
00:53
I mean right.
00:55
And White people are always weady to–
00:57
I mean always ready to tell me that I’m wrong,
01:00
until they realize that I am half White,
01:02
so only half wrong,
01:03
so forgivable.
01:05
So, sure, White, er… right.
01:06
I mean go on and write, White girl,
01:08
er… right, girl.
01:09
If you’re so White, er… right, go on and write what you know.
01:12
What do you even know, girl?
01:13
Are you sure you’re White? Er… right?
01:15
Are you sure you ever want to be anything other than society’s White answer?
01:18
You don’t have time to be making any mistakes right now.
01:21
Your only hope is White now.
01:22
The answer is right there on the test paper,
01:24
the newspaper articles, on the TV screens.
01:27
We are all watching White be right for no good reasons.
01:30
I mean, I’m White, aren’t I?
01:32
I mean, I’m right.
01:35
(cheers and applause)
01:39
(man) Give it up for the poet Chanel!
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video