𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠 ❤︎

𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙, 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝐺𝑖𝑟𝑙

Submission by Cry-baby101

~

"Black Girl, Black Girl" a poem by Kaitlyn McNab.

When I was in middle school, I went through a phase.

I wore distressed skinny jeans and alternative rock band tees and studded belts and belt chains and low canvas converse of nearly every colour in the rainbow.

I listened to what to some, would be called "white people music."

I didn't know how to control my hair back then, so a ponytail with more of a mane than a tail was the backdrop to the abstract work of art that was my pre-teen face.

Amtrak braces going across jaggedy mountain teeth and two bushels of eyebrows protecting the fortress of chunky black glasses.

I was different.

There were a group of girls at my school that were more popular than the rest.

They all wore Hollister, Abercrombie, carried Coach wristlets and pranced around in this season's new Ugg boots. And only those.

They were acquaintances, but not friends.

I thought they didn't like me because I was different.

And then I remember my sixth grade self thinking about all the differences between me and these girls.

And I remember my sixth grade self zeroing in on one specific difference that I had to question more than the rest.

And I remember my sixth grade self asking my mum on the car ride to school,

"Mommy? Do you think they would like me more if I was white?"

And my mum didn't know exactly how to respond.

Part consideration and part hesitation. She didn't know how quite to respond.

Because being one of the few black beings growing up in white suburbia did not exactly provide the best answers to these types of questions.

But you know what she told me?

The truth.

"Maybe sweetie. Maybe."

I remembered thinking that that was just so unfair, so rude, so ignorant of them.

And then I said, "Oh well. Their loss."

But now I'm 17. And social media is desensitising my generation and granting people cyber courage to say things they would never say in the world outside their front door and attaining opinions that would never be claimed as their own if it weren't for this twisted society we let inside our homes.

Boys, NOT MEN, have become more picky, or excuse me, vocal about their preferences and choices in women lately on social media. And I quote:

"I only like snow bunnies and Latinas."

"I never once said black girls don't look good, I just said white and Spanish girls look better."