I am an Ojibway, brown, queer, gender fluid person

And I am tired of other people’s white, misogynistic, hetero-normative tears

When a trans, woman of colour tells you their story

And it makes you feel ‘bad’about your cisgender, male whiteness

I don’t give a shit

Because it isn’t about you

Even cis, gay, hetero-normative guilt or shame don’t make me flinch

They make my eye’s roll

Labels exist because they are a construct that was created and that we still follow

We use specific labels to identify our friends, sexual conquest, families and sometimes our children.

I am her ‘gay’ friend

I am his ‘aboriginal’ colleague

Instead of her friend and/or his colleague

We use descriptors, because we don’t know any better

And it isn’t our fault for doing so

But it is our responsibility to correct it

But ‘pluralism’, ‘colour blindness’, and ‘tolerance’ are still dirty words

They are words built out of erasers

Folks see these lands as a melting pot of cultures

But you still need an entity to build the pot

An entity to add which cultures get added to it

And one to take cultures out of it

Give us space

Give us purpose

Give us power

To empower someone, you must give them the power to make their own decisions

Or to have a valued role in those decision makings

To show folks that others must conform to something that isn’t theirs

Is assimilation

And. We. Will. Not. Be. Assimilated.

Because resistance is fertile

And baby, we’re still here