Nonprofit with Balls is my favorite workplace humor blog because, Vu, is able to capture the tone, spirit and love/hate relationship of working in the nonprofit sector. So when I saw his latest post about poetry, I knew it wouldn’t disappoint. Heck, I’m still trying to figure out how I missed the call for submissions. In total, he featured 15 poems, but only one really, really resonated with me.
“What is it like?”
Confidential
What is it like to be working with a team of white people?
You asked me
Not just any white people
But white people with Ph.Ds and research interests in non-white people
Research interests in people like me
The thing is, you never asked me this
No one ever asked me
What is it like
To drown in a sea of whiteness?
No one ever asked me
What is it like
To hear white people
Talk about how they know
Because they were on food stamps
When they were doing AmeriCorps
Or what is it like
To hear white people
Talk about
Working with at-risk youth
So now they know
What it’s like
To be disadvantaged and poor
And even if you asked me
I might not answer
Not because I don’t want to
But because I might say
It’s just in my head
These things I feel
Are not real
These things I wonder
Does not mean much
Because that’s what it’s like
To drown in a sea of whiteness
The things I feel
Are not real
The rest of the poems he shared can be read here.