Race Apart ?
Isaac Inkah *
Where do I begin?
Where do I begin?
I am just like you.
Race has no colour.
Being black, white or brown
Was imbibed at home, school & temple;
By the system,
For the system.
The disconnect you see
Are everywhere!
Where do I begin?
When you are forced out of your place
In search of education, job, and success!
Because that is how the system exert-
Is it?
Don’t deny me;
When I say,
"I look different
And think differently."
Don't tell me a lie,
Another convenient lie
That we are one-
"A unified whole bound by multiple differences."
Where do I begin?
When you know the story
Yet, simply don't understand.
You simply want to hear the pain
Over and over again
Over a cup of chai,
Over a cup of chai.
(Written in response to sustained racial discrimination against the North-eastern people in various part of India)
* Poem written by Isaac Inkah for e-pao.net
The writer is the author of Thabaan Sanu Zingpha (An anthology of poems in Inpui) and Inpui Naga Karing Ngei (2018): Reproducing Oral Narratives.
He regularly blogs at www.isaacnka.blogspot.com (Antrimwanbut Khwan).
This poem was webcasted on 23 July 2020.
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