Dawn Marar

repeat, after me

focus on what whiteness is doing

whiteness gains currency

by being          unnoticed

whiteness is lived

as a background to experience

whiteness shapes

what bodies can do

whiteness is real, material, and lived

whiteness becomes worldly

through the noticeability

of the arrival

of some           bodies

more than others                     whiteness involves a form of orientation                            

consider orientation as a question

of one’s starting point:

skip or jump rope or hop scotch to this ditty:

what you come into contact with

is shaped by what you do

clap:

how does         whiteness        hold     its place

whiteness holds through habits

skip AND clap to this one:

think about the habit in inhabit

repeat after me:

whiteness is what bodies do

where the body takes the shape

of the action

red alert!

white bodies do not have to

face their whiteness

they are not orientated

towards it

repeat after me:

whiteness is only invisible

for those who inhabit it

repeat after me

repeat

With gratitude for Sara Ahmed’s “A phenomenology of whiteness,” Feminist Theory, 2007

Dawn Marar’s chapbook, Efflorescence, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2018. She was a finalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and the Orison Anthology of Poetry Awards. New poetry appears in The Hong Kong Review. Her website is https://www.dawnmarar.weebly.com.