A Matter of Course

by Andrew Rihn / March 3rd, 2008

Of course there wasn’t a race problem
in my high school. The student body was so
overwhelmingly white there was no room for conflict.
There wasn’t a single non-white teacher but no one
ever spoke about, much less questioned, that fact.
And now, while I drive down the road to
college I see a cop pulling over a black woman.
On tv I watch the sentencing of minorities,
or worse yet, the stereotyping.
Everyday I stare into the blank eyes of privileged
faces and they seem to say to me, smiling,
of course there isn’t a race problem.

Andrew Rihn is a student at Kent State University. He has had poetry appear online in the NeoAmericanist, Poetic Injustice, and Poets Against the War. He has also had articles or essays appear online at MR Zine and Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. He can be contacted at: monkey6079@gmail.com. Read other articles by Andrew, or visit Andrew's website.

This article was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 4:59am and is filed under Poetry, Racism.

One comment on this article so far ...

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  1. hp said on March 4th, 2008 at 9:29am #

    Peace and justice are theories. Nothing more.
    Where is the benchmark? Where is the example?
    If you know, please don’t tell me. It would only seal their doom.
    How many even know who Thoreau really is?
    He sure as Hell wasn’t some good time Charlie sitting by the pond getting stoned and dreaming.