PLEASE WASH SEPARATELY

This post has been edited since publication to honor the wishes of the photographer. All photos have been removed, but the poetry and the message remains the same.

     So what exactly is SDEL?

     Well for one, it's an acronym.

     It's the truncated title of a digital publication ran by, written by, and dedicated to People of Color in USAmerica.

     Less literally: it's a riverbed. It's a bath tub. It's a waterfall for People of Color where they can wash off the White gaze and just be.

     SDEL is written by us for us, and we find that to be purifying. Rejuvenating. Spirit cleansing.

     It was this idea of journalism abluted from the White Perspective that was the inspiration for our editorial: "PLEASE WASH SEPARATELY"

     Because right now everything from politics to the air we breathe is dirty - and we need a little cleansing.

     Enjoy.

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Come clean yourself, child,

soak your skin in sanctified water.

It's time to wash your wounds,

scrub away the slings and arrows,

rest yourself.

They say you must wash the coloreds separately from the whites.

Funny they don't say "You must wash the whites separate from the coloreds."

As if our brightness bleeding onto fragile white fibers is our fault,

When really it's the whites that are weak

And susceptible to influence.

But don't pay them no mind, child.

Leave them to their Borax and bleach.

While they drown in pursuit of the facsimile of perfection,

we float in the sweet liquid life stretching around us,

basking in the comfort and glory of watching water mirror sky,

cleansed in the divine refuge of not always knowing which is which.

Welcome to SDEL

Stay a while.