Niggers And Crackers Poem by James McLain

In the mid sixties
Cracker it exploded out of all the racist mouths
and then
the word Nigger never far under
comes out of the dark covered with out shame.
Even as a child of seven
being placed in Lake Magdalene juvenile home
they were allowed
to admit others up to age twenty one.
Deep in the south it was Tampa.
I weighed thirty five pounds
and next to me watching soul train
he
asked me to touch his monstrous dick.
I was terrified I am white
the black cottage father that very night
took me out
across campus to live with he and his wife.
Confused at age twelve
my step father from Chicago
ask me and my brother to canvas our neighborhood
to sign petitions
objecting to what was to come
desegregation and black children being bused
to the then white schools.
Unable to articulate or explain the severity of our
dysfunctional child hood to a Judge
whom did not care
to abuse your children as it was then the norm
it was acceptable.
I being grown now I after having seen
my step father
call black people niggers as a child now know
just how wrong now I feel.
Being in the deep dark institution called the south.
And about what each person has need to call another
out of hate when it spawns the hatred it calls up
from their fear.
It taught me this about how to talk to my daughter
and then stepson.
They never heard the word cracker or nigger from me.