By Iqbal Suleman
If my skin is white
And my eyes are blue
Would you burn me alive
And blow my brains out too
If my skin is white
And my hair is blond
Would you support a Genocide
By providing all the bombs
If my skin is white
And I spoke English like you
Would you close your eyes
And let them do as they do
If my skin is white
And if I am a Zionist Jew
Would you force me to starve
And watch me die of hunger too
If my skin is white
And I the daughter of Milaikowsky
Would you fight for my rights
And send soldiers to save me
If my skin is white
And my body ruptured in two
Would you leave me to rot
Beneath the Gaza rubble too
If my skin is white
And I was a child named Tzipi
Would you let them shoot me
With bullets, three hundred and fifty
If my skin is white
And my eyes are blue
Would I wait in the queue
Watching blood mix with flour too
My skin is not white
And my eyes are not blue
But my blood is red
Just like you
My skin is not white
I am Fatima, not Sue
But I love my child
As dearly as you love yours too
My skin isn’t white
I am not Benjamin nor Donald
I experience your Genocide
Because I am Muhammad
My skin isn’t white
And I am not you
But you and I know
I’d be alive if I looked like you
Iqbal Suleman
Suleman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network