He screams

"Build the wall."

Meanwhile young child immigrants clutch onto their parents

Saying goodbye

Not knowing why

"They say it's because we're not allowed here."

I do not understand

I thought we were all a part of the "American Dream."

I found home in unlikely connections.

My first best friend was completely opposite from me

Going home to comments

"You need white friends"

"You're turning into a thug"

What does that even mean?

It started when I told them

Family Matters is better than Full House.

I found home in unlikely connections.

Walked into college expecting

"Whiteness" covered in hate

Instead I received love.

Love from someone who I never believed would love me

The development of a relationship

That's connected both my heart and my head

Into one.

We are all different patterns pasted into the same quilt

Connected by the simple fact

We are

Human.

We are lines on the graph of life

Not parallel

But perpendicular.

See there is a point

When we intersect.

People focus on the wall

Creating division instead of addition

As if they never learned in grade school

That when we divide

We are smaller.

We did not come out of our mother's wombs

Describing ourselves by our colors.

Sometime between then and now

People learned the words

"Them" and "us".

Percentage of melanin in the skin

Determined the percentage of those who're going to graduate from college

Or get sent to prison.

As if the almighty white man

Assigned a random card when a black child is born

Only two options exist

It's prison or work

But the option was never yours to begin with.

It's your pigmentation

Determining your destination.

People really think

The dark paints on the palate

God used on humankind

Are to only be dark enough to read

On white paper.

As if the words themselves

Mean nothing.

We are told that young people are going to be the change

Young people will make this better

But how can we believe that

When white teens mocked an elder Native American

In the same vicinity

As the whitest house

And the only thing he can say?

The kids were treated "unfairly".

Somehow I am supposed to understand

It's "okay"

That a black man cannot wear his face to work

But a white man can wear it

As a costume.

Somehow I am supposed to understand

It's "okay"

For white men to shoot up grade schools

But a black man

Can't even reach for his license an officer asked for

Without getting killed.

Somehow I am supposed to understand

It's "okay"

That if George Zimmerman was black

He'd be greeted with a life sentence

While a white man

Is let free.

Somehow I'm supposed to understand

It's "okay"

Some young black teens in public schools

Don't think they should to study

Because they believe they'll end up in prison

Anyway.

Somehow I'm supposed to understand

It's "okay"

That proving racism happened

Is more important than understanding

That it happened in the first place.

Somehow I'm supposed to understand

It's "okay"

My best friend living with me in college

Getting almost straight A's

Will always earn an average of almost $10,000 less than me

For the same job.

Somehow I'm supposed to understand

It's "okay"

The man who advises the program to keep me in school

And is dedicated to seeing me through

Is three times more likely to be killed by police

And to become a news headline while I sleep in peace.

When will people realize

It's not okay.

I stood at the MLK March and sang the words

Ringing in my ears

"It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die."

And I realized after many, many years

A change has yet to come.

We are still sitting separately

Living separately

Existing separately.

Slavery never ended.

They are focused on building a wall

A wall to separate immigrants

PEOPLE

From entering a country founded by them.

Focused on building a wall

Fighting over who's going to pay

While immigrants are fighting

For their lives at the border.

Focused on building a wall

Because evidently crime rates will fall

Isn't it funny

Almost 70% of people commiting crimes

Are white.

Focused on building a wall

When we should be building bridges.

We should be focused on connection

Instead of separation.

Love

Instead of hate.

Acceptance

Instead of denial.

Bridges or walls

The latter will fall

And even if it doesn't,

I will be there

breaking it down myself.

Rest assured there will come a day

When being human will be more important

Than color.

The sooner we realize that

The sooner we understand that

The sooner we live by the dream MLK dreamt, not just reciting it

The sooner we connect over experiences

The sooner we believe in each other

As people

The sooner a change is really gonna come.