Blacks and whites together:
identify with Malcolm X.
read Chekov’s Gooseberries.
dream of Walden Pond.
Blacks and whites together:
cry at the Kennedy boys’ assassination.
Martin Luther King’s assassination.
Malcolm X’s assassination.
Attica.
Kent State.
Jackson State.
The Vietnam War.
Blacks and whites together:
scorn David the Benny.
leave anonymous hate notes in his locker.
avoid him at lunch.
Hell, even the school counselor’s laugh at David the Benny:
A stutterer.
A malcontent.
A clumsy man.
A man with thick glasses.
A man with smelly clothes.
A Vietnam veteran.
Until one night.
David the Benny kills his girlfriend.
and her two children.
and blacks and whites together wonder why?