Jo-Annah Richards
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Elegant and elevated, I am proud and confident
Regal and exalted in my presence
But society asserts I should be ashamed and apologetic
Because in my blackness there’s no beauty, no dynamic
I once wondered if I was really a Black Queen
When with distain my black skin is seen
They perpetuate that the attributes of a black woman cannot embody beauty
But once intricately and artificially placed on a foreign body it is awed at in glory
Ridiculed and shamed for my big lips
Stared at for my provocative wide hips
But my lips on her porcelain face is praised as plumpness
And her surgical enhanced hips adored for its curvaceousness
To think that our majestic roundness they told us to shamefully carry behind
But silicone pumped into their derriere festers on their mind
Daily Black girls scrub and erase their brown skin
Leaving their bodies bruised and paper thin
White women lay still burning brown for hours
Enviously coating their body in lotions to get what is already ours
Our history is mostly hidden and our culture we were told to ignore
Only accepting what we are told, while our traditions are being sold in stores
Weaving our uncontrollably hair in canerows, our beautiful curls
Our traditions are now the latest trend, shared link, hair tutorials
Stealing our music, our sound for that they better work, work, work
Duplicating our rhythm, our whine, it is not a twerk
But what is truly ours cannot be stolen
But our truth, it seems we have forgotten
Our unique and beautiful blackness
Caramel, mocha and mahogany greatness
Too afraid to be displayed in negative stereotypes of blackness, mute
We need to discover our own power, our essence, our truth
We are the descendants of Kings and Queens, royalty
The blood of warriors and survivors flows through our veins, fluidly
Do you feel it, can you hear
Like the bass of a drum in your ear
Beating through me, through you, through all of us
Is pure, undeniable beautiful blackness, trust
