For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend", poem by Pat Parker, a Black woman.

So I posted this poem on FB last year during Black History month. Now I'm not black, but Black History is American History. So here is a poem by a Black Gay Woman, Pat Parker written in 1978, that I read in my Sociology class in 2000.

I love it because it is so ambivalent, so contradictory, but it's so true & so on point & so correct even for today. I feel like I can make a Brown Indian version of the poem with Indian food. I would title it:
"For the White Persons, Black Persons & even Indian Persons Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend". 


I was able to relate to this poem not because Parker is Black, because I am not Black; I was able to relate to her experiences in the poem. So anybody who feels like a minority can relate to this poem, universally.

                                "For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to Be My Friend"
                                                                         (1978)
                                                                    By Pat Parker

The first thing you do is to forget that i'm black.
Second, you must never forget that i'm black.

You should be able to dig Aretha,
but don't play her every time i come over.
And if you decide to play Beethoven - don't tell me
his life story. They make us take music appreciation too.

Eat soul food if you like it, but don't expect me
to locate your restaurants
or cook it for you.

And if some Black person insults you,
mugs you, rapes your sister, rapes you,
rips your house or is just being an ass-
please, do not apologize to me
for wanting to do them bodily harm.
It makes me wonder if you're foolish.

And even if you really believe Blacks are better lovers than
Whites- don't tell me. I start thinking of charging stud fees.

In other words- if you really want to be my friend - don't
make a labor of it. I'm lazy. Remember.