black in america
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Things didn’t change in the past few years
We just view things differently because our vision is now clear
We witness the uproar in our communities
We witness the trend, the everylasting continuity
Why must we
Observe these bleeding bodies
On the floorboards of restless ancestors
Whose lives were tainted by the scoreboard of oppression?
And we sit behind
A phone and find
Brown skin, white palms, my hair is dark and always nappy
I struggle to thrive in a world designed to keep me unhappy
I go to school the teachers think that I'm breaking rules
When you’re born they ask how dark?Does my life matter?When you’re a toddler and people call you pickaninnyDoes my life matter?
when she told me,
“Straighten your hair, just to see what it looks like.”
all i heard was,
“Straighten your hair, so you look like me.”
and i wondered then, if i did