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Social Conscience & Human Rights 2014 Trevor Swistchew

Poem for a Racist

A Socratic Interrogation of Global Interdependence and Everyday Hypocrisy

When you wake up in the morning
And turn on your Japanese radio to listen to music
Played by people from all over the world
And drink your tea from China
Or coffee from Brazil
Before putting on your American jeans
And cotton clothes made in India
Consider the question
Why am I a racist?

When you go to see your football team
Most of whose players are foreign
Owned perhaps by a Russian oligarch
Wearing your scarf made in India
Consider the question
Why am I a racist?

Getting into your German designed car
Fuelled by oil from Saudi Arabia
Built by Eastern Europeans
And go to Macdonalds an American company
For a burger
Consider the question
Why am I a racist?

Then understand that everything you eat, wear or use is made through the cooperation of many other people, mostly those you are racist towards.

Are you still a racist?

Creative Fellowship

The Shady River Bard Creative Ecosystem

Trevor Swistchew's poetry and philosophical essays are published in fellowship with The Shady River Bard—exploring a 26-album concept discography, working permaculture, and reflections on human purpose.

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