Racial Profiling Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Observing to view.
Without a question needed to ask.
What experiences one has lived to have had.
Makes it difficult for one,
To know specifically what to them done.
To sit listening to others debate,
As to how one should react to false statements made.
Concerning the facts of their own lives to live.
While those quoting from notes,
Attempt to minimize...
What one knows is their reality to live,
On a daily basis.
To do with no time to delude the reality of it.

"Your claims of being victimized by bigots and racists.
We not only find appalling but also offensive.
How do you respond to our comments? "

-I apologize.
I must have nodded out.
Especially when you began discussing between yourselves,
How many people of color you actually spoke to...
When driving from the suburbs to the inner city.
To then wonder why they are not working,
At jobs you declare them not qualified to perform.-

"There you go again.
Who do you know born without blemishes or flaws?
Whenever I go to the mall,
I see many people wearing their hair in dreadlocks.
Does that make me a racist or a bigot? "

-The privilege of selective thinking.
The privilege to be thoughtless and self serving."

"You must be a mind reader.
I had those same thoughts,
When I reported them to the mall security guards.
I thought...
How dare they be so ethically obvious.
And walk with such confidence and arrogance.
So I reported them.
I felt it my civic duty."

-That's racial profiling.-

"No.
That's being proactive."