By Written by: Yasmine Badaoui.
When White Family visits, it’s just shy of unannounced, last minute—
a funeral,
a grievance,
Christmas,
a break from the countryside.
When White Family visits,
mind your manners and as my brother reminds me often;
“Ignore everything they say,”
When White Family visits, keep talk small,
don’t say things in Arabic,
they look at you funny,
and never say “White people”
because Grandma will correct you,
heavy Appalachian twanging
“If you aren’t white, then what are ya, Black?”
When White Family visits,
hide the salt because mama will cry that it’s all over the counter,
hide the cookies because Grandpa will eat them and have an episode,
And the parts of yourself they won’t forgive,
But keep your prayer rug where they can see it.
One visit on the veranda,
At high-noon,
Your first cousins from Benin bring over their hookah and playing cards,
And Grandpa gives a sermon
cutting an apple,
“Only some shall be saved,
and the wicked will burn
in the sulfur pits of the burning lake,”
“The righteous attain second life,
while the vile attain second death,”
When he mock motions the knife across his neck,
Your 14-year-old sister squeaks;
“Grandpa its only tobacco,
Granny smokes Winstons.”
When White Family visits, you forget
that Grandma still refers to your mother’s 10-year-old hijab
as a “rag,”
that its blue-eyed Jesus
Trump confederacy
or bust,
that you’re foreign,
but not.
One visit,
around the table,
Everyone gathers
around Chicken Shawarma,
Granny’s favorite,
and mine
Mom recounts the story of the hour,
“We were in line at Walmart,
and you wouldn’t believe
the looks this woman gives us
and Mommy looks right back at her,
mean as a snake,
and announces
“Because
she wore that on her head,
you have a problem,
that’s
MY daughter”
When White Family visits,
you ride the wave of humanity
through the holler
and buckle your seatbelt until it’s over
with maybe
a fight or two.