Black | Teen Ink

Black

December 27, 2012
By sugarstick BRONZE, Plainfield, Illinois
sugarstick BRONZE, Plainfield, Illinois
4 articles 1 photo 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Always have something to sell"


Because I'm Black.
Of course, fried chicken, Is a part of my essential nutrients
Knowing how to "twerk"
Is clearly
In my blood
Because I'm Black
I may very well know how to speak with some English clarity on the street
But the second I get home, the oh so natural Ebonics roll off my tongue.
Like beads of sweat
Off the face
of the southern slave
And SURELY
Because I am Black, I must jump not one, but two ropes
Or else how would I be trained to tackle the fences that Re-re and them
Be jumpin
Not just coincidence
It's somethin
something making people believe that one color means another
That my skin tone is an attitude
Talkin bout some "culture!"
What culture?!
Not Kenyan.
Not Haitian, Algerian or Nigerian
Not Jamaican or Native Australian
What culture? brown culture.
Brown culture?
Nope.
Black culture.
Because I am Black I was branded at birth
Thanks to Shay-shay, De'quan and all of they cousins
who did not heed their grandmother's warnings on lack of education
She knew. But they did not listen. And so I pay up.
Because I'm Black.


The author's comments:
This poem comes off funny more times than not.
It can be funny but it's really a very serious piece about an issue that has been a chip on my shoulder since I was a relatively young child. It's sort my way of venting about being a young African American person who has/wants nothing to do with her stereotype and my frustration with those who oppose the racism and assumptions thrown at them and yet continue everyday to be the proof of the stereotype they've been stamped with.

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