February 27th, two thousand, fifteen,
Black shirt blue jeans, full of broken morals and bad raisings
Ignorance is bliss, but not as this, I’m done with the racists, White man drunk, angry at burger, not even hazing
Says “I want a white man to make my burger” not even faking
I spin around and look at the crowd in line.
Frozen, shocked, but doing what?
I felt stuck in time.
‘Pause’
Stuck in the moment of confused broken tokens, Stereotypes, media lies
and everything at the time that made this white man think that he’s right…
Think that anything that’s not standard print paper white
doesn’t belong to this fast food fantasy of burgers and fries
Fast forward to trump times, global awareness, woke activists and pandemics collide.

Enchanted by slanted eyes and stereotypes,
Always felt a divide from cynical minds,
But never felt more of a divide besides restrictions and rights
because my perceived appearance just wasn’t right.
Lightness yellowish skin and accent, features defined,
Anxiety when boarding or walking through the mall
Double glances in the sight, and now instead
Hearing voices in my head
“Get off this tram”
(- other people, mime the words – old man, old woman)
“you’re not a local”
“Get off this land, bringing this disease with incense and bats“
And maybe it’s all inside my head,
Maybe,
But somewhat a part of you has to question the extremes of memes and humour
What deems the right to abuse the victims of the future
To set apart a world
where we
are all
just human

The poem and film aim to give an audience a feeling, a flash through time, where racism isn’t attached to the idea of a disease, but of the xenophobia of taking jobs creating a feeling of not belonging, of a simple kind of anxiety, to make it relatable.

The start of the film brings visuals of culture and food, as the poet tells a story of a previous racist attack that reached news articles and how surreal the experience was, we are then transported through to the collision of the world being affected by the covid19 and the story-teller is explaining his discomfort of how this anxiety has brought him into a paranoia state, of he can’t tell if it’s in his head, he then leaves it with the audience to determine the act of double glances and subtle reactions.

This work was intended to look into two perspectives of racism, in different timelines bring out the similarities of ignorance, vulnerability and confusion. The nuances of the two timelines signify that racism can weave into the fabric of a political highlight of any timeline, but it’s up to us to realise that we are all just human.

A conceptual writer and Spoken Word Artist, Matcho Cassidy explores themes that are heart wrenching, thought provoking and soul simulating. Focusing on heritage & identity, love & heartbreak, personificating traits and feelings within. Matcho uses cadence and conceptual methods to heighten his ability in expression and eloquence. Matcho has performed and featured at Captain Rehab, Tenx9Adelaide, Ozasia, The Hearth, Poetry & Prose, Al Salam Festival & Dithyrambia, Mixed Bag Poetry & Whitewalls Poetry Coming second in the DYS Slam 2017.

Since 2017 Matcho has been the director and event planner for Soul Lounge. Matcho is currently working on his own book – Ellipsis: Inbetween the dots.