SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

“The Two Americas” by WITS Student Thewdros Shibeshi

For anyone who has been paying attention,

There are indeed two Americas:

There’s an America that’s a world of white racial resentment

Where the Confederate flag proudly flies,

Where monuments to traitors are to be revered,

Where protesting racial injustice is an intolerable act of aggression,

Where the words “Black Lives Matter” are considered words of hate.

And there is what I like to think of as the real America,

A deeply flawed country

Starting to come to grips with the wages of racism,

Hatred and racial division,

A too-violent police culture,

A wealth gap,

An education gap,

A health insurance gap.

A country that believes in its better angels

A country that knows it can do better!


Thewdros Shibeshi wrote this poem while a student at Franklin High School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Naa Akua. Thewdros read this poem to open our Women You Need to Know (WYNK) Series event with Natalie Baszile on May 4, 2022.

Posted in Student WritingWomen You Need to KnowWriters in the Schools2021/22 Season