“Racism is not about how you look, it’s about how people assign meaning to how you look” – Robin D. G. Kelley, historian

What does my skin mean to you?
Does the dark pigmentation of my body
Mean that I am not as intelligent as you?
Mean that the brain inside my head does not have
The same potential?
The same capacity for knowledge?
Mean that I cannot think or dream like you?
Does the distribution of keratinocytes inside me
Mean that I am inferior to you?
Mean that I am less human, less alive?
Mean that I should be considered property?
Mean that I should be enslaved?
Does the amount of melanin in my skin
Mean that I should be assumed
To be rowdy and loud and bigmouthed?
Mean that I am angry and wanna start a fight?
Mean that I deserved to be called a n---?
Does the brown shade of my skin
Mean that you have the right to beat me?
Mean that my arrest needs to turn into a murder?
Mean that I cannot wear my hood up?
Mean that I cannot walk down the street?
Does the dark pigmentation of my body
Mean that I cannot love your white son?
Mean that I cannot be friends with your white daughter?
Does it mean that my blood is different?
That my heart does not beat the same beat as yours?
What does my skin mean to you?
I know what it means to me
It means I am strong
I am smart
I am beautiful
I am powerful
I am worthy of life
I am worthy of love
I am a phenomenal
I am unstoppable
I am me.