Close your eyes, imagine this

A little girl in the mirror

Her skin is brown

Her hair is long

Can you envision a little clearer?

Eyes that resemble a pot of gold

This little girl is only 9 years old

She sees—not a beauty—but a beast in her reflection

Her mind has been poisoned by this dangerous infection

The illness that has spread among the US

Soon enough, this little girl becomes depressed

The skin that she wants isn’t light enough

She cuts off the ends of her words—

She doesn’t “talk white” enough

She believes that to be beautiful

She must appear as what she sees

The skinny, lighter models on the TV and magazines

Open your eyes, can you see now?

This was me when I was down

All alone in a world

Where no one around me was brown

 

I now appreciate the skin I’m in

And wouldn’t trade it for a thing

Because on the inside

I know we’re all human beings

But somewhere out there

There’s another little girl

One who wishes her hair was flat

And hates her precious curls

What Would I Change

In a world so cold

I’d approach these little black girls

And make them erase what they were told

With melanin super rich

History too

What more could you ask for

But to change how you used to view you…