CV Teacher Pens Powerful Poem

Editor,

I am a Teacher at Creekside M.S. and grew up in Castro Valley. One of my colleagues, the Teacher who was mentioned in your September issue, by the Castro Valley student Zoe Dorado, wrote a poem that I would like to share.

–Michelle Ruiz, Castro Valley 

“Let’s Not Pretend” 

by Nasira Waters 

Veiled bias and racist ideologies 

Asserting accusations of false improprieties 

Transmitting gossip to malign one’s character 

Salivating hopes of perpetuating, SLANDER 

Adult’s perceptions of racially bias ideologies Infiltrates the classroom with soul crushing intensity 

Branding epitaphs, like: “I DON’T FEEL SAFE” 

To reinforce colonizers sense of place 

Entitlement evoking words of manipulation and deceit 

Eliciting investigations, 

unveiling lies and hypocrisy Irony, your fragility, lack of accountability, 

Actually creates, “an unsafe space for me”! 

To be free 

Imagine my epiphany 

That teaching while Black in 2022 

Could be the death of me 

From 2018 - 2022, insidious accusations 

And no-one held accountable 

For the lies, rumors, and insurmountable harm 

Permeating emotional, mental and physical abuse 

But I only came to teach how to “Think Cri-ti-cal”!