To White Parents With Brown Babies By Denver Poem by Amyrah Richard

To white parents with brown babies:
We know you are trying,
Raising children in your image is complicated when we turn out to be what your people have been destroying for centuries.
When your lineage is not recognized as your own.
Hiding, hoping I can pass for my grandparents' family.

To white parents with brown babies:
Know that your child will become accustomed to the darkness first.
Do not teach them to be afraid of it.
Teach your children their lives matter.
The man I "call" my father likes to pretend he doesn't think about race,
As he stands in the place of a black man that got my mother pregnant and left.
When he lets, "my daughter's black" slip through his teeth,
I wonder if he knows what that means.

To white parents with brown babies:
Do not forget your history erased parts of theirs
Do not hide this from your children
Know there are some things you are allowed to be wrong about.
I find myself systematically ripping away at everything that is taboo and reflective of my oppressors' tactics,
But how do i unlearn something that was never meant to be digested
Is there a self help book on decolonizing these parts of me