Don't You Hate It When...? by Amanda Neal

Don’t you hate it when people serve you food
That you absolutely hate
And have told them about a trillion times that your deathly allergic
Or you had a bad childhood experience that involved food poisoning
And the server looks at you completely offended
That you declined their tuna casserole surprise
Like you hadn’t told for the trillionth time
That you absolutely hate tuna casserole surprise
Don’t you hate that?

Don’t you hate it when you wake up in the morning
Feeling like it’s going to be a good day
Even smiling about while you grab all your school supplies
When all of a sudden, you reach school realizing you forgot your homework folder
And then decided not to go back home because you’ll be tardy
And that would mean detention
And after realizing that, discover that you had toothpaste all over your face
And that the people pointing at you while you drove to school that day
Obviously weren’t admiring your new sweater from Abercrombie
And you still need to go to class because the first bell rang
And you can’t wash your face
And when you get to class and you’re late anyway
Don’t you hate that?

Don’t you hate it when your family goes out to dinner
And your three brothers are still punching each other
Like you weren’t out in a public setting or anything like that
And your little sister walks around
Telling every Africa American man that she sees
That her dad is black too
And then they look at me, with my white skin and my white mother
And shake their heads
Like were the ones teaching her to be a racist
Like it’s my fault that I came out with white skin
And when the food finally comes
It’s not what you ordered
So you have to sit there and wait for them to fix the food
While everyone else is eating
And when the food arrives, your family is done
So you have to take it to go
And when your little sister thinks she is being cute
And grabs all the chocolate mints off of the tray they gave us
And throws it at the people in one of the booths next to us
Coincidently being one of the African American families
That she told them that our dad was black
And having to race out of the restraint
In fear of a racial discrimination lawsuit?
Don’t you hate that?

There are a lot of things that I hate
Not all of them are as dramatic
Or as Jim Crow
But these are the things that bother me
And I hate it when people tell me
That I’m just being silly
Or that I am overreacting
Because if you just read my little rant
Its obvious I’m not
So don’t hate