A Name I Call Myself

You have to understand

That I’m not white

To everyone

Let’s just take it off

Geography, okay?

Egypt is in Africa

So I’m African

That’s just how maps work

And I’m not being flippant

About all this

I’m saying that, uh

I got here, to America

When I was--what?

Nine-years-old?

So I already feel like--the other?

You know?

I don’t really feel--

I mean, I barely feel American

Let alone like a, like a--

White person

But, okay, I get that

I appear white

I get that

And I get that appearing white

Means I have some of the privileges

That white people have

But, objectively

I am--

Because, like, where I’m from

Is closer to Nairobi

Than it is to America

So let’s just keep that in mind

Now, here’s this program

That I want to get into

And they take twelve writers, okay?

Twelve

And I don’t get in

And I just say what I’m feeling

I go online and I say--

The program doesn’t have

Much diversity in it

And I get this really urgent response back

From one of the, uh, you know

Someone who did get in

And they’re Asian-American

And they were like--

This is so wrong

And I was like--

Listen, out of the twelve

There are three African-American students

The Asian student

A Latinx student

And the rest all look like they could be von Trapp’s

Blonde, pale, Scandanavian slash Mormon

Looking young men and women, okay?

And everyone in the program

Including the minority students

Is gorgeous

But we’ll get to that in a second

For right now, let’s just say that--

This Asian-American student

Thought I was talking about

Tokenism

And they were saying

That there’s no tokenism

Because, like, almost half

Aren’t white

But, like, don’t you think

That’s intentional?

Don’t they think they had just enough minority students

So that it clearly wasn’t tokenism

But not enough

To actually have people be like--

Wow, this school is actively

Searching for real talent

And real perspectives

And not just covering their asses

And then letting in the white kids

They really want to let in

Because diversity isn’t just--

Or shouldn’t be just--

Here’s this group of minority students

And then the rest are all goatherders

Like, what about the overall look

Of a group of people?

Yes to the minority students

But, remember what I said about gorgeous?
How gorgeous they all are?

This program is looking

To graduate people

Who can be on The Today Show

Really setting the world

Of Manhattan on fire

But not necessarily offering

Real life perspectives

Diversity should be minorities, yes

But it should also be, like, people with weight issues

With fucked up skin

With, like, bad teeth

And different hair colors

And ambiguous backgrounds

And Greeks and Italians

And Native Americans

And, and, and--

And Egyptians, yes

It’s just bullshit

It’s just total bullshit

They’re not making a difference

They’re not trying

They’re not even taking in the best people

Because the minority students they did take

Aren’t even that good

But they don’t know that

Because they don’t really care

Because they only really care

About the students they actually want to succeed

The von Trapp’s

And it’s a travesty

It’s a fucking travesty

And I don’t--

I don’t know what to say about it

I don’t even know

What to say

About it