Night Rider.

Reed, Ishmael

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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Night Rider

 I don't look like no
 Klansman but I think like
 One
 Though I still wear a Dashiki
 My heart is covered with
 A white sheet
 I have fantasies involving
 Lillian Gish
 I struggle with these
 Me and my white hooded
 Friends share the same
 Obsession
 You know the one
 I don't look like no slave
 But I think like one
 I hold Caucasians to
 Higher standards than I
 Hold myself
 I'm incapable of
 Reaching such moral
 Heights.
 I call them bigots
 But what have I
 begotten?
 In my soul there
 Are cross burnings
 desecrated cemeteries
 in Prague
 I'm hip to the
 Protocols
 But to the public
 I'm holier than thou
 Blacker than thou
 Blacker than even
 Myself
 I scare myself with
 My Blackness
 I know the theory
 Of Kawaida backwards
 Wussy cowardly
 Negroes tolerate
 My hatred
 Too chicken to object
 wolves have a pack
 lions have a lair
 I have a claque
 they clap at my
 every word
 They give me plaques
 Celebrate my birthdate
 Three times a year
 Name rooms in black
 Studies departments after
 Me
 I make them sweat
 If I asked
 They would lick the
 fungi between my toes
 If I asked they would
 push a peanut with their noses
 When I cursed the O'Hara's
 They gave me a buck
 Brought me to Tara
 And fed me wild duck
 Had me stay over
 For a long leisurely sleep over
 I swam in their heated pool
 Even though I linked
 them to Yacub
 (How did they know about
 My cravings for strawberries
 And ice cream).
 They gave me donations
 So I could further
 Their Damnation
 They gave me a down
 Payment on their trip
 To hell
 Guilt sells better than
 Cheap hair gel
 During the day I
 Was critical of the "traitors"
 Downtown
 But when nobody
 Was looking
 I was downtown too
 Heh heh
 You might call me
 A night rider

Ishmael Reed, together with Toni Morrison, is one of today's pre-eminent African American literary figures - perhaps the most widely reviewed since Ralph Ellison, and, along with Samuel Delany and Amiri Baraka, probably the most controversial. In 1995, the University of Buffalo (now the State University of New York at Buffalo) awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Letters. He recently retired from teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for thirty-five years. He currently lives in Oakland, California.