I’m white but I’m no blank slate;
A lot of ideas delineate Nate —
Middle-class cis white male, kinda straight,
A cracker on the platter of the appetizer plate

Of the United States —
and in that space
What shall I say as I raise my pale face
To gaze on the pains my ancestors placed
On the land I come from — can I love my own race?

So Let’s talk race — right on this track:
What is this construct of white race and black,
And all in between them? — let us say clearly
What this all means — it’s Critical Race Theory.

It’s the CRT — oh shit, why dude?!
You’re going to explain this to me? You’re a white dude.
Aren’t you the reason it’s needed? Why do it?
— Why? so dudes like me just might get the vibe too.

So this is for you — with a view and with a voice,
By whatever race you’re called by convention or by choice —
But especially my melanin-delimitated boys:
We need to read W.E.B. Du Bois.

Drawing on Du Bois, and Douglass, and Truth,
Critical Race Theory endeavors to prove
That racism isn’t just a hatred for a group
It’s a complicated system that is woven in the roots

Of society itself — and it isn’t ourselves
That make us fear difference and tell us to tell
One another apart — that part’s played well
By our history books, our American Tales.

And so Critical Race Theorists like Kimberlé Crenshaw
And Derrick Bell and others, study policy and law,
And how in spite of these our latent ideologies have all
Kept our racism stuck in our society’s craw.

But it’s not all designed to attack ya my dude,
Just because your skin’s white — that’s not accurate, dude —
What they actually do is unshackle the truth
From the patterns of the past — don’t get your facts from Ted Cruz.

The origin of race as we know it is recent —
It’s traced to Andalusia along the Iberian
Peninsula, the place of modern Portugal and Spain,
At the end of the Islamic era Ummayad reign.

When Christians reconquered, they aimed to rebrand it —
‘This place is Christian now; it ain’t Islamic’ —
And banished the resident Muslims and Jews
In the year of our Lord Fourteen Ninety and Two.

Now the few that remained, when they tried to convert,
Were denied on the basis their blood wasn’t pure —
And such as they were, they considered them Other,
And difference in Blood became difference in Color.

So yes indeed, brother — every race is a construction —
Yes, but just because it was one doesn’t mean it doesn’t function
In the system — and it’s made up and its constructed, alright —
But every prison begins from a construction site.

[Refrain:]
I don’t bring this to light to annoy ya my dude
I’m just trying to make a point I’m not pointing at you
The point is to use your knowledge as a tool
Why would you not want to teach that at school

Now some might say, This is not for me,
I’d prefer if everybody here was equal and free —
But It may equally be that this is really preferred
Only when their liberation and your interests converge.

For under layers of dirt, in the subconscious brain,
It’s hard for those in comfort not to want it the same —
When the system is yours, do you want it to change?
Is that a virtue signal, or are you trying to switch lanes?

But if nothing but critique
Is what everyone speaks
When they meet with a complexion
That’s "white", beige or bleached,
Then it would do run the risk,
When using critical speech,
Of estranging just those people
That the theory must teach —

See ‘cause just because a person
May deserve a verbal lashin’
Doesn’t mean it doesnt lead them
To an adverse reaction
When they’re served it — in the service
Of the truth we may try
To shout down liars, but that makes them
Double down on their lies.

And so the lonely white guy
Within his corner of Reddit
Starts to feel himself cornered
By some kinda vendetta,
His identity vetted,
And his whiteness as wedded
To an idea of oppression
As if its in his essence —

And he feels the Left’s left him
And he feels right or wrong
That the Right’s the only place
He’ll be embraced and made strong,
And he’s faced with the illusion
Of a binary choice,
Of being Anti-Anti-Racist
Or deprived of his voice.

Well, the good news is, the binary’s not real —
You can criticize yourself, and carry pride as you feel —
And we can satirize ourselves — ‘I’m white, I suck, hardy-har’ —
But satire is an easy start; transformation is hard.

And it’s okay that it’s hard, when your part has been snubbed,
To suck it up with within your soul and serve the others with love —
Because it wasn’t you that stole, but you’ve been given the stuff —
And there’s times when stepping down is the way to step up.

So let us be real — and let us feel seen —
As we collectively awake from the American Dream —
Being critical of self and our quote-unquote kind,
But still loving both — both critical and kind.