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A History of White People
white people were paid well
not to witness
the fact that they were white
you know the theory
white isn’t a color
but color’s unlimited absence
white goes with anything
that’s why it seemed fair that white people
conquered the world
they were the real invisible men
cause they could perch on top of a country
and say they weren’t there
they could move through its neighborhoods
like mysterious aliens
with this difference:
in ufological lore
aliens often infiltrate a world
without its inhabitants knowing about it
but when white people invaded
everyone could see them
but themselves
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Jerome Sala’s books include Corporations Are People, Too! (NYQ Books),The Cheapskates (Lunar Chandelier), Look Slimmer Instantly (Soft Skull Press), and the forthcoming How Much? New and Selected Poems (NYQ Books). His poems and essays have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions, Pleiades, Boundary 2, Rolling Stone, The Best American Poetry series, and many others. His blog–on poetry, pop culture and everyday life, is espressobongo. [“A History of White People” originally appeared in Hanging Loose magazine (circa 2004) and Look Slimmer Instantly 2005.]
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Emma Amos, About Whitness, 1995. Oil and laser transfer on paper. Whitney Museum of American Art
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