Jerome Sala: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

Jerome Sala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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                            Emma Amos, About Whitness, 1995. Oil and laser transfer on paper. Whitney Museum of American Art

       

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Author: Terence Winch