The America I Live In

As the election went on this year all the Caucasian students were buzzing on my campus

Being a young black women you could see the look of “concern” in their eyes as they passed me

One day, one of my professors saw the plain look of disapproval on my face while we were discussing the election

She came to me and asked , “Well Kelly, what is the America you live in?”

Once asked I kindly smiled and responded with the same question

What is the America "I" live in?

I give a slight grin and a chuckle before I give my answer

The America I live in is the one where I wear an afro in 2016 and pass by two elderly white women and one of them looks over to her friend and says “They ' think it's still okay to wear that hairstyle?"

Meanwhile on social media young white women are like vultures ( oops I meant CULTURE vultures)

Taking cornrows and Turing into " highway braids

Or bantu knots and turning then into " space buns"

Or what about Kylie and Kim taking our lips or our thighs and asses making them "Trend"

The same America where when I was only 9 years old, all these features where considered ugly and not wanted

#Iwasblackbeforeitwascool but I guess now our race just looks cuter on them

It is the same America that a dark skin women will only be called beautiful or "sexy" if a white man looks her up on Porn hub under the category "Ebony" and jacks off to her

but when he finishes goes right back to referring to black people as Nigger

It is the same America that has given some of us black people a "slave mentality"
 
For example my boyfriend and I go on a date to city park we search for an exit for 20 minutes

We come in contact with a black police man and while we approach him I am kindly asking if he could point us to an exit while he on the other hand the whole time starts yelling at us when he immediately sees us

He doesn't tell us where the exit is he instead tries to accuse us of trespassing when we clearly weren't

but when one of the white family's approached him (which there were plenty of us who wanted to find an exit)
The white man rudely yells at the police officer, "WHERE T H E HELL IS THE DAMN EXIST!"

To which the officer clears his throat, takes off his hat in respect, and replies without yelling but in a rather polite voice completely ignoring us and says "Go straight and take a left sir"

This is the same slave mentality that had my OWN mother say to me " You always try to act so proper and bougey,you try so hard to dress nice and have it all

Well you cannot have nice things YOU ARE NOT WHITE!”

You hear that, having nice things and dressing nice even in my Mother's mind can only be achieved by whites and not blacks In the America I live in

But it's okay, it's okay , you know why because I hear they're making America great again

This poem is about: 
Me
My country

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