A Black and White Affair

Written by Timothy Welbeck

Biblical References: Genesis 1:28; 5:1, Acts 10:9-35; 17:26, Romans 2:11; 8:14, II Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:26-29, Colossians 3:11, James 2:1, 9; 3:5-8, I Peter 1:17, Revelation 7:9-10

Verse 1
Mrs. Crowder approached two dozen kindergartners/With boxes of Crayolas, bins of markers/Sheets of paper, and the tender charge of/Make a self-portrait and splendid artwork/She needed say no more, my attention sparked up/And I raced to create the images she brought up/Her boxes overwhelmed with their assortment of hues/But I continued as an artist with a portrait to do/My hand found a brown, then I caught a glimpse of hazel/Then a peach, ignoring in consequential labels/I labored over each line for what seemed the span of hours/Slaving to perfect it, I kept on glancing downwards/And while my schoolmates scribbled and played, I trickled away, when soon would come the rants of doubters/And through the clamor it seemed that all they took the chance to shout was,/ “You’re not white, why are you using little pieces of peach/You’re black, you should have drew your picture with these”/To bewildered to speak, I didn’t disagree/I didn’t even respond or try to answer back/I was too busy hearing them say, “You’re not white, you’re black”

Hook
You’re black, you’re a black(repeat 3x)

Verse 2
At an age when most youth seem to prove unruly/I differed from the pack, pursuing approving in schooling/I hung off my teacher’s every word, and I rarely found lectures dull/And fairly soon the respect would grow for the young man with the spectacles/As the kid from the second row who took the best lesson notes, with a keen intellect you would expect to see in adults/Even when the teacher talked about how empires back in Europe fell/I was getting more A’s than a pack of Duracells/And my parents would show their pride saying, “Son you’re doing well”/And I would glow inside just because of how good it felt/My peers would tease, but most times I withstood it well/Until one faithful day a student, he stood and yelled,/”Timothy this isn’t deep, why is it that you read/Your pants don’t dip down to your feet, and you sound different when you speak/You need to get it together, you better start acting right/Otherwise we’ll say you’re not black, you’re white…”

Hook
You’re white, you’re white (repeat 3x)

Verse 3
There’s no escaping it, “One ever feels this two-ness”/Two souls, two thoughts beneath this human/Two striving, two fighting, two vying with two grips/Two warring ideals that peel the hubris/That reveals one voice that speaks through two lips/And tell the world which of the two is truest/Which of the two will choose him/Which of the two is you Tim/I heard black, and thought of the color of asphalt/But I didn’t see how that color fit me at all/I tried to escape it, and it came wandering back/And I lot the name “Tim” for the moniker “black”/But after we embraced, it changed place for a different word/I know I’m not black, because I feel in love with literature/And you know black people don’t read unless they pictures first/And I know I’m not white, I’m covered with a reminder/So torn, what I took the chance to find was/The Father, He is my definer long before the color line was/So I cannot let it concern me, what the world will term me/I let the hours pass as the world is turning/And color my response with this reaction/I am a man of God the world wants to call a black man

Hook
You’re black, you’re white/You’re black, you’re white, you’re . . .

©2005