Crayon Humanity

I wrote this piece after reading the following quote from James Baldwin's, The Fire Next Time:

"You were born where you were born and faced the future you faced because you were black and for no other reason."

I will have a group of 4th-grade boys think about each piece and share their thoughts.

Crayon Humanity

by

Alfred W. Tatum

January 25, 2011

2:36 pm

This nation is guilty for coloring me

Black intelligence

White guilt

Asian promise

Latino nightmare

Each trying to force me to live from the outside in

While I want to live from the inside out

A single color is too complicated

Inner peace can’t fit into a box of crayons