Boomer's Bio

"What Do I Know?" (return to top)

So, what do I know?

I am a white male with light hair and pale skin

In my comfortable community of

Handsome homes, elegant gardens, and suitable safe schools

The adults worry over, not just jobs, but careers

With fears focused more on their mutual funds

Not tears for their young lured to gangs with guns

What do I know about prejudice?

Now, I'm not ignorant. I'm not blind.

I got the message,

I've read the papers, noted the news, caught the commercials, repeated the raps,

been moved by the movies, reported on the books, covered it in class, been assigned the biographies, been herded into assemblies, slept through the lectures, sat through the speeches,

talked to parents, talked to friends, talked to people that know,

talked to people that know.

Hey—I've been to poetry slams where I've heard the poets represent.

What do I know about prejudice?

I got to admit, I don't know shit

Because between learning and knowing is a canyon wide, deep and dark:

info is not experience

listening is not living

surveying is not surviving

third person is not first person

a theory is not an encounter

to assume a position is not "assume the position"

a test record is not an arrest record

words are not wounds

words are not wounds

and I ... I am not even scratched.

I am a white male,

what do I know about prejudice?

Words are not wounds,

and I am not even scratched.

Some stroll down streets amid taunts because of the color of their skin.

But that's not my life.

Some have teachers who assume, presume, presuppose that they know those students' limits

just because of their race.

But that's not my life.

When the door swings open at Seven Eleven (bing-bong),

There are some the clerk eyes with prejudgment

fearing for his Hot Cheetos, Slim-Jims and magazine stock,

noting the height against the scale marked on the door, 5'4"

in case a description is needed later in a police report.

But that's not my life.

There are neighborhoods calculated on an undeniably amoral formula

prejudice = less than equal education = zero jobs = negative money =

the misery of poverty, crime and drug addiction.

This is a story, a story problem told only in a few neighborhoods,

neighborhoods where good people battle these problems every day.

That's not my life.

I have heard reports of the wretchedness and wreckage that results from racial prejudice,

But I will not have reports of my own, no stories of my own to tell;

I will not know this pain for myself.

And it is important that I remember that difference,

that I never think that I understand this experience

as if it were my own.

Because, then, then, it would be too easy, too easy to dismiss, to make it seem like a smaller problem,

like I could fold it up and stuff it in my pocket to be lost with

phone numbers, coins, bus passes, and receipts. How convenient ...

And for those, like me,

who are not targets of intolerance,

to think we can completely understand this hurt just by talking about it,

would be wrong.

It's wrong, because

it's not that simple.

Words are not wounds.

If the world is to be washed clean of the stain of bigotry, those of us who do not suffer because of hate have to work hard to remember, to always remember

what we don't know, what we'll never know, what we can't know ...

to always remember

the struggle of those

who do.

Boomer's Bio (return to top)

Age: 14
From: Oakland
Poem: "What Do I Know?"

"You might understand the pain but you might not know the pain.

"Poetry is a way to express myself and be heard.

"One thing I'd tell adults is to act like your children. When you're playing on the playground, you don't care what race or religion your playmates are.

"A message I would tell youths is to unite. Youths have a lot of things we need to get done because in numbers, you have power.

"I started writing poetry when I saw a poetry slam and thought it was very cool. I decided I wanted to write poetry."

Aside from a lot of the writing he does for Youth Speaks, Boomer is also part of the student council at his school and a board member in many student-run organizations. He also likes to play lacrosse.

"It all started with Dr. Suess."