This is a poem dedicated to my fellow Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) classmates. A couple weeks ago, a PLNU student posted a Yik Yak that was purposefully hateful to African Americans. Many of my friends no longer feel like students, but rather like targets to be shot at will. In response to the grotesque racism that has fogged mine and so many other universities, this poem is one of the many small lights to an even larger lighthouse that has begun to break through the the fog and hopefully into the hearts of students.

I am a lover of color

I see no difference between me and another

Though their skin is darker or lighter

Our hearts are forever united together

A shade and tone don't dictate human

I am a friend of the African, American and Cuban

In a world where silence can lead to ruin

I will speak out against anyone who calls someone inhuman

This is not a revolution, I am just one of the many

Who believes one wrong gone unseen is far too many

In a corrupt world, we need no more hate, we have plenty

Let's give a reason to hope for those who don't have any

We need to stop sitting for ourselves and start standing for each other

To start using our mouths to keep our hands held together

Take this to heart as a message from one human to another.

I am a lover of color.

I am love.

This poem rings true to my love for people of all shapes, sizes, and shades. In my journeys to places like Ireland, Guatemala, and the Bahamas I have seen so many different kinds of beautiful people and I consider myself to be blessed to live in a world where the ideas of tyrants like Hitler crumbled and did not stand.

A world without color is hardly a world at all. It is like a blank canvas, waiting to be painted. Even the most pure of pearls have accents of pinks, blues, purples, and greens. Is one better than the other? No. In fact, differences is what makes something unique. White does not mean pure, and having Caucasian hands doesn't mean they are clean.

Some of the worst people in history have been white and some of the best people in the world, like Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa whose names we celebrate today, were dark skinned of all shades and backgrounds.

This poem is not meant to just inspire you and motivate you to speak and make a difference, but it is also a challenge and question: What more has to happen to make people see that love is not about color? Another Hitler? Another terrorist attack? Another world war? Cause we have had two of those already.

What is at the root of these problems? One group of people thinking they have a right to dominate another.

Let us be a generation who learns from our elders' mistakes.

Let us be a generation who speaks.

Let us be lovers of color.