The black girl must be the right colour
Not too dark, as she will be denied the classification of beautiful
Not too light, as people will claim she is not black enough

The black girl must wear the right outfits
If every piece of skin is covered with fabric, she will be deemed insecure and or a prude
If bits of her skin is slightly revealed, she will be known as the neighbourhood's easy one

The black girl must speak in the right way
Too much slang, she will be mistaken as ghetto and unintelligent
Too many big words, she will be told that she "acts like a white person"

The black girl must have the right hair
With cute short kinks, people will whisper about how bald headed she is
With long, spiral curls, people will be asking if she's mixed

The black girl must never win in this novel, for there always has to be someone that will out do her

Even though she is the main character, she not be the favourite

The black girl must never be confident, for she will be falsely accused of arrogance

The black girl must be insecure, for people's ignorance persuades them that black girls aren't satisfied with themselves

The black girl must never win, for she will always be seen as a penny less

°°°°°

Привет! (Hi my little children)

So I have poetry club every Wednesday. Yesterday, I started writing a poem based off Sherman Alexie's "How to write the great American Indian novel" poem. It was a really good poem, and our club leader wanted us to write a poem similar to his style. Thus, this hot papi was born.

I'm a black girl that has "experienced" some of these lines. People always tell me that I act like a white person (how the heck do you act like a race?). People are always trying to say that a girl is bald headed because she has short hair. People are always making fun of the girls with really dark or really light skin. It makes me so mad because all shades are unique and beautiful. Plus, people always want to call someone a white because of their clothes. This isn't even just a black girl thing. Everywhere I look, she's a slut or thot because of the way she dresses. Like noooooooo. Slut shaming is a no-no in my book. But that rant is for another time.

This poem is personal to me. I mean, all of my poems are personal, but this one especially. I really hope you guys like it.

I also hope the ending turned out well. I didn't know how to end it, so that I might have made the poem terrible.

I have to go now. Plan on writing some more. See you guys soon.

Take care

~tatiana