Skin-Color Doesn't Matter Poem by David Welch

I remember when I was young,
playing with my best friend Jerome,
we had some woods behind our houses,
our frontier, where we would go roam.
We played soldier, explorer, cowboy,
as most young boys are known to do,
we were both of us nine years old,
so little of the world we knew.
Then his older brother came home
from some overpriced eastern school,
he saw us playing out back one day,
and chastised both of us as fools.
Said, "Jerome, stop playing white games,
all this fascist cowboy bullsh-t,
it is not part of your culture,
and you don't even realize it! "
At this point his mother called him,
the angry young man went inside,
saw him argue with his parents,
then storm out, his anger alive.
Jerome and I just looked confused,
neither of us knew what to say,
our skin-color didn't matter,
we just wanted to run and play.

I remember as a young teen,
I was a nerd, and into games,
after school I'd play D & D
with other kids who felt the same.
We'd role that many-sided die,
fight ogres and demons and such,
the jocks and hot girls laughed at us,
but we just didn't give a pluck.
One thing that did surprise me though,
when we stayed after school to play,
was the school's ‘inclusion councilor'
who passed by our meeting one day.
She poked her head in through the door,
took a gander at out geekish horde,
spotted Jerome where he was perched,
scoffed, "A token…you need much more."
Now we were all confused at this,
took a while to understand,
outside Jerome we all were pale,
and for this reason we were damned.
What that had to do with the game,
or adventures in fantasy,
was not that apparent to us,
we liked dragons and quests manly.
That was what united us all,
and she just could not comprehend
our skin-color didn't matter,
next to quests we'd see to the end.

When I was a few years older
I fumbled much concerning girls,
I played no sports and in high school
that seems like the entire world.
But I as more the thinking type,
went to the math Olympiad,
and met there a young girl named Lin
who didn't see such skills as bad.
I fell like a love-struck child,
that is exactly what I was,
finally, I had a girlfriend,
and I was quite happy because
it meant that I got to have sex,
the holy grail of all young males,
back then I did think happiness
was a steady supply of tail.
But her father, an immigrant,
was not the biggest fan of me,
feared that if I got her pregnant
the baby would not be Chinese.
He kept looking for Asian boys,
and kept trying to set her up,
went out of the way to make things
for Lin and I exceedingly rough.
But Lin had found a make she liked,
and by my side she chose to stay,
the skin-color didin't matter,
since both of us were getting laid.

But even horny teenagers
get serious after a time,
and when I finished up college
sweet Lin was still there in my mind,
we reconnected afterwards
and started going out again,
but right away something seemed off,
something that Lin seemed to resent.
I asked about it three dates in,
and that face I loved grew annoyed,
she said, "Of course you'd not get it,
what can I expect from a white boy? "
She launched launched into a whole tirade,
all the woke shibboleths came out,
said she wasn't the same ‘dumb girl, '
that she couldn't be with me now,
that continuing to go out would
be a threat to her ‘identity, '
it was then I saw, with horror,
she'd been poisoned by CRT.
She said white men sexualized
asian females going way back,
that it was near pedophilia
to look at her small shape like that.
That it was hard for Asian men
to find women in this nation,
that she would betray ‘her culture'
if she gave birth to a mixed son.
I sighed, said, "I don't date racists, "
walked out as she complained and whined,
she now thought skin-color mattered,
her love was now something malign.

I turned my attention to work,
as a structural engineer,
started a firm with college friends,
all sorts of offers soon appeared.
We specialized in big bridges,
and for years we just grew and grew,
after a big highway contract
an expansion was needed, we knew.
We set out to hire more on,
engineering jobs with good pay,
the first prospective came on in…
Good lord how I do rue that day.
She called herself Mia Lopez,
I took her resume and exclaimed,
"You do not have a Bachelors?
You realize it would be insane
to hire someone who hasn't
much skill with metal or stess,
that if we get the slightest thing wrong
it could result in people's death? "
She stared back, and said angrily,
'This is what you think of Latin folk!
I saw your staff when I came in,
I knew I shouldn't hold out hope!
I took courses in architecture,
and your need more people like me,
unless you want all of the world
to think you hate diversity! "
I threw her out, she bitched online,
it caused chaos but I held out,
skin-color just doesn't matter
when bridges come tumbling down.

Finally, another came in,
a tall man who was a dark shade,
and I admit, at first I thought
that we might just see a replay.
But he was dressed in a fine suit,
with a brief-case full of his work,
he had helped build seven bridges,
was skill in moving around earth,
had taken lead on two projects,
both under budget and on time,
Masters degree from a tech school,
truly this man was quite a find.
He's still working with us today,
is now my senior engineer,
and is making high six figures,
with his projects I need not fear.
They're solid, strong, and built to last,
bring the public much benefit,
skin color just doesn't matter
when you build yourself on merit.