William Lynch, Virginia, 1712.
Proposed the method of dividing slaves against each other based on skin color, which would
“Control the slaves for at least 300 years.”
It's been 303. And we still have yet for change to come.
People try to dismiss that colorism is just a myth, saying that “we all bleed the same color.”
This may be true… But whose blood was left on the master’s whip after a hundred lashes?
I know the world isn't black and white… But it sure as hell ain't in technicolor.
Girls being told their skin is too dark
Or that they could pass for a white girl if they straightened their hair…
Brownskinned girls being told to pick a side;
I don't recall skin color being a choice…
The melanin in our skin being deemed as dirty,
But the earth tones in our flesh can never truly be erased.
Black girls being afraid to approach our own brothas because they may not like black girls...?
White girls with fat a**** being considered a rarity,
Black girls with flat a**** are some sort of peculiarity,
Spare me the snowbunny speech.
Society approves black features on non-black people.
White girls with overlined lips and cornrows swinging at the hips, it's so high fashion until it's on someone who’s black…
There's a fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation,
You wanna know why we’re so “angry” and “full of hatred”?
Our own culture is being stolen
Our hair is considered inappropriate
Our bodies are seen as vulgar,
We are instantly fetishized by what we cannot help.
We’ve been trained to step on one another,
What we are meant to do is help each other,
Uplift our sisters and brothers,
What we're currently living through may be a generational curse…
They claim that after the rain comes a rainbow,
And the world isn't all black and white.
But it sure as hell ain't technicolor.