Spelling White Privilege
My son's education
This was originally performed as part of “Platformed - the Salon of Wit and Words’ at The Rum Shack Glasgow 8 October 2023. Hosted by Jenny Lindsay and featuring Shauny Boy.
I love words.
Like…. Onomatopoeia
Sizzle. Pitter Patter. Cuckoo. Glorious.
GLORY-OUS
~
My son he struggles,
cause English is weird I tell him,
he sees.
~
Why in one word you get
Flourish and also FLOUR-ish
OR the race and THE Race.
~
English is a puzzle.
Dissect the words
and you will find
a kaleidoscope of history,
a peek into how empires were built,
marriages were created,
and inconsequential pleasantries
were passed that sometimes
caused offence.
~
The Bible tells the story of Babel -
the division of man and dissolution
of understanding.
Where pride leads you to a place
surrounded by millions
all speaking
but with no one to hear.
~
Words are also…. Descriptive
White Snow. White Dress. White… Privilege.
~
This was not a spelling word I expected
my 9 year old to come across
in his weekly lessons.
~
Maybe being the classical liberal parent
(working in the Scottish arts scene)
I should have primed him
with words like
STOP FUELLING THE PATRIARCHY
YOU HETERONORMATIVE
WHITE CIS MALE OPPRESSOR.
~
My bad.
~
I was trying to convince him
to make his bed.
Pick up his socks.
Wash his hands before meals.
Say please when he needed something,
and thank you to anyone who was kind.
~
My son I never imagined I would have-
with his blonde halo of baby curls,
his exceptional lego skills
and his rapid dislike
of bananas.
~
But the one person I will love the most forever,
even when he is being a twit.
~
White Privilege.
~
People, like words, are puzzles also.
My son knows this.
He has many friends.
~
Mohammed is the best at sprinting,
the class Usain Bolt,
but not so good on long distance races
like his sister
Amna who can run
for miles and miles like a gazelle
without breaking a sweat.
~
Musa never seems to be short of slushies and sweets
which he shares out with great generosity,
my son takes the wrappers
for the group and crumples them in his pocket
for me to find later.
~
Ayaan is mad for Jurassic Park,
he wants to be a paleontologist.
He brings beyblades to the park,
they are like spinning tops,
they hold competitions.
~
And when their friend Jabran died
At the funeral
in the mosque
they held each other so tight
and wept with a depth of grief
only they could understand.
Their ten year old hearts breaking
the lost football matches,
the super heroes games
they had played as pre-schoolers,
the comradarie they had shared.
~
For Jabran whose face lit up
looking into the eyes of whomever spoke,
a talent he had cultivated
as translator for his deaf parents,
now gone.
~
My son and his friends contain
multitudes.
~
But this White Privilege
is a rascal word and
a thief.
It assumes by virtue of
my son’s golden hair
and pale face
that he is the Master
of his friends with their
large dark eyes
and coffee coloured skin.
It dictates that my son by virtue of
his looks
must liberate his friends
from their slavery.
~
It robs them all of their
talents, agency and
hope.
~
White privilege
this nonsense word
is a key to a cage
with no escape.
~
Words.
Dissect them and you will find
a kaleidoscope of history,
a peek into how empires were built,
marriages were created,
and inconsequential pleasantries were passed
that sometimes caused offence.
~
My son knows this.
English is weird he tells me.
Yeah I know son,
I know.
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