Black and white is not a color

black and white is not a color

Maybe if we all just stopped whatever we
are doing right at this moment then stepped
back from life however we are living it just
for a few moments then try to remember back
about everything that has happened to us
because of our skin and the names that we
are called like colored folks or whitey then
listen for the truth which is we have many
colors that are in the rainbows in fact they
are in order of Violet, Indigo. Blue, Green,
Yellow, Orange, and Red notice something
I do black and white are missing nowhere to
be found the fact is that black and white are
not really “colors” at all they are neutrals in
the world that we all live in, so I need to really
wonder why is there so much hate and violence
over just the color of our skins? Why do we
fight when anyways since we are not a color
after all? I mean hell, we are not even on the
color wheel my friends, we work together well
in the world of color take for example the keys
on a piano that all come together to create
many types of tones when pushed in a particular
order produce different sounds, imagine that
the black and white keys that are right next to
one another both working to create beautifully
sounding music that may just last forever, or
the ink that spills from a quill or pen upon the
pages of any writer you may know or the type-
writer and even today with the computer is and
has been black since the first words ever written
down on paper which has always been white or a
shade thereof, coming together to form letters,
words, and sentences making some of the
greatest books of literature in the world, today
going back so far that even the Bible was written,
so why is it that black and white have gotten
into arguments and fights when it comes to
the color of our skin, we are not chess pieces? I
mean we all bleed the same color when we
are hurt and our teardrops that fall from the
same two eyes are for sadness, joy, pain, and
more just like everybody and the sweat that
we drip off our backs working for barely anything
at all just trying to feed our families, so I again
need to wonder when will the ignorance finally
come to an end for the world around us since
in my opinion, the problem was a falsehood
from the start, I mean we are not a color, after all,
let's drop the lie that color is the reason because
black and white is not a color and neither are
you and I.

Poet Richard M Knittle Jr.
A #Poets Journey
Texas Poet Laureate Nominee 2016-2020