Don’t Need Your Guilt
A poem I made after coming back from a bit of a break from them to vent out some frustration over something personal that happened back then. Was also coincidentally relevant to then current events and I suppose continues to be relevant now. Not exactly an easy subject to articulate properly but I tried my best. Originally posted in April 2021
Don't Need Your Guilt
By: A.X. Bueno
This shouldn't be something I feel I have to exclaim
Your overbearing guilt isn't needed and neither is your self flagellation or copious shame
I get that it's a lot
Carrying the knowledge of the atrocities of the past
As well as the terribleness of the racist and prejudiced institutions of right now
But beating yourself up to prove what a good ally you are isn't the way how
All that does is make yourself feel better while taking attention away from the actual issues
With things that affect us we need more than just you feeling bad
And crying about your whiteness into tissues
No one wants your pity party or your half hearted platitudes or deep shame
We simply want you to acknowledge what's happening and it's not simply about collective blame
It's more complicated than that and yet also surprisingly simplistic too
It's about recognizing that there's many intentional and embedded flaws in our system
As well as privilege that for a few different reasons happens to favor you
Nobody pretends that that's truly your fault, for the circumstances under which you were born
They just want you to care and acknowledge how much stuff for them is unjustly screwed
No one is trying to make you feel miserable just for being we just want to be able to stop mourning
Because some people feel others deserve death for simply being slightly slow and cautious about a warning
Is it too much to ask to for BIPOC to not have to have this constant fear or exhaustion in our lives
Of course it's also important to not treat POC or black people as a monolith
That's very important to realize
It'd probably help in relieving a lot of the guilt
What would also help is not waiting till a tragedy happens to temporarily care and empathize
BIPOC don't need your fleeting pity or your fake trends and selectively outraged cries
We just want to feel safe and not like we're always under attack or being told to shut up through comforting lies
I could go on but I hope my point is clear
We don't need your guilt
We just need you to lend a better helping hand
Both when tragedy happens and also when it isn't here
Also don't badger constantly badger us personally with questions or for perspective
After all information is kind of what the internet was made for
And we're only human so please respect that and don't make conversations a chore
Or else you might actually receive someone's ire
But that would be because you were testing probably already well tested patients
And not because of some "reverse racism" or the coincidently white color of your skin
So I hope you take this to heart whenever there's a sensitive subject and you feel the need to chime in