By Isabel Teles, January 18, 2022
All men are created equal—
Or so he declares.
He, the white man,
with the power and the money,
the education and the opportunities.
The white man who doesn’t worry about
what he’ll eat tonight,
how he’ll pay the rent,
how he’ll pay for his child’s education.
I turn to this white man and question:
In the nation built off the lashed backs of the workers,
and the selfish greed of the owners,
the nation of the Black, the Hispanic, the Asian, the Native American,
the Jew, the Catholic, the Muslim, the Buddhist,
the homeless, the rich, the educated, the privileged,
are all men created equal?
Is the Man who gets his breath stolen as he runs,
equal to the man who murders two and walks free?
Is the Man who works 80-hour weeks,
fearing separation from his family,
equal to the man whose parents laid out his life for him?
Is the child who takes their life,
tired of being the laughing stock,
equal to the child whose father purchases the silence of the oppressed?
He can tell me they are the same,
the Man who drowns,
and the man that’s saved.
But where the sun rises in His Nation,
its light slips away before the eyes of a Man,
who resides in the White Man’s Country.
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