I
  i.
sometimes, being discriminated against
is
an elementary school teacher treating one of her students
like a thing to be exterminated and killed and disposed of
like the dirt under concrete she steps on everyday
~ except that dirt can be beneficial ~
because her student has a different skincolorhaircoloreyecolorappearance
than every single other student she teaches, has taught,
doesn't matter how intelligent hardworking forgiving
her student is --
and the school is letting it go
and the school is doing n o t h i n g
to stop it


  ii.
other times, being discriminated against,
is
the way their eyes pass over you.
and this is after, they tell you,
                ~ how rare, how brilliant, how exceptional ~
you are, especially considering --
especially considering how d i f f e r e n t you are.
because
you will never be considered one of them.
because you will always be considered d i f f e r e n t.
because you may be "good",
but you will never be good enough.





II
   i.
being a minority, is the word
                                            i n s i g n i f i c a n t
carved into and hammered onto you so many times
you curl into yourself
and hunch over so you look less tall than you actually are,
just so you can blend in.
just so you can avoid the stares.
so someone doesn't call you out for something you haven't done. again.


   ii.
being a minority
is never seeing yourself in those around you.
it is getting so used to being different
that those alike you, are a novelty, tucked away and hidden so far,
injustices don't matter.
one killed another
but it is history repeated all over again,
Hammurabi's Code and the rich and the powerful get fined
while the poor die.
the killer walks free, nothing but a slap on the wrist --
   the dead is the guilty party, now, the dead is the guilty.
because why would a person from the majority ever **** an innocent?





III
     i.
being a teenage girl  
is
looking old enough to look like an adult, but not truly being one yet
so choosing between jeans and shorts, and saving skirts --
skirts, dresses, for occasions when you must where them
because that way
if there are drunk men surrounding you on trains,
or enough of a collection of blood thirsty ones,
you have some protection
against wandering hands
and people who tell you your body is not your own.


   ii.
being of the female gender is also
never going places alone because
you have heard the h o r r o r stories
you have seen them
   you have experienced them
and you do not want to end up
sexually  h a r r a s e d
*                                       b e a t e n
  *                                                         r a p e d
   *                                                                ­        d e a d.


   iii.
being a woman
in a working environment,
is
  *g l a s s   c i e l i n g
                                      never shattering
never speaking too loudly or too much
for fear of being called "bossy" "loud" "obnoxious"
for fear of being fired.
being passed over for promotions because social norms disallow you
from being competetive
or having your own ideas
from having the same right to be there as the men.
from work being not profession --
but professionsecretarycleancookwifelookafterchildrenmother
all of the above.