My Black

Why does my black bother you?

What angers you about the way I was created?

Why is being me so wrong and unaccepted?

I changed my accent and straightened my hair.

Tried to look more like you and less like me.

Too much black is ugly and uniqueness is a flaw.

I bathed in your expectations and lathered in your culture.

Now I see my blackness for what it’s worth.

A flawless diamond encrusted in a shell so thick,

Only to be broken by the pain my felt by me.

The light is now shining through, and I now love myself

You won’t stop me anymore, I no longer have a master.

The whip you lash at my attempts to rise will be cut by my fire.

You don’t have to accept it, but it will come to pass.

It starts with me; it finishes with us.

My blackness will be embraced, not by you but by me.

Your approval is not needed, nor in consideration.

I am you equal and your righteous counterpart.

My strength is self-taught; my advantage is experience.

I am a powerful black woman.