It’s the same problems every day.

We deal with the same questions and give the same answers.

“Oh, is this your real hair? Can I touch it?”

What do I look like? This ain’t no petting zoo!

 

Don’t get me started on what it takes to get our hair the way it is.

Sitting in the chair for hours and hours

Either getting hair braided or getting your sew in done.

Then you gotta wrap it up at night.

People don’t understand the struggles we go through.

 

It’s especially hard when you have white friends.

They don’t understand that if it ain’t wrapped up,

It it’s gonna get jacked up!

 

Even with natural hair, it ain’t no joke.

Those girls spend at least an hour a day trying to get their hair descent

And even then it’s not the way they want it.

Having to buy combs because you continuously break them in your hair,

Using up almost all the conditioner before even half of the shampoo is gone.

 

Let’s not even talk about how humidity messes up everything!

You can go from a cute flat ironed do,

To an afro puff in less than 30 seconds flat.

Let it start raining and every girl will be running to the closest building.

 

Then we deal with hate from other girls.

If they not mad that you wearing a weave,

Then they are mad you rockin the natural look better than they could have.

 

Dealing with the stereotypes is not any different

“Why do you sound white?”

Well excuse me for using proper english.

Not every black person uses slang.

What did you want me to say “ain’t no different”?

Not every black girl claps the syllables to every word.

Those are the girls that ruin it for the rest of us.

It’s not like we can show we’re mad either.

Then we get labeled as “the angry black girl”

The one who is always rolling her eyes and smacking her teeth.

So those of us with respect for ourselves ignore the ignorance

Trying not to fall into the same category as ‘those’ girls.

 

It’s these problems that make it hard for us to date outside of our race.

Oh you’re black and you like a white boy?

Sell out.

Why don’t you date black boys?

Why don’t some black girls date black boys?

Because black guys are always getting locked up.

No respectable girl wants to be with a guy in jail.

So how about you leave us alone and let us deal with our love life.

 

Sometimes you hear a statement that makes you angry,

Like when your white friends say “My inner black woman came out”

What you know about the feelings of a black woman?

Or things like “How come there’s no white history month?”

Umm..excuse me?

Have you been repressed so much that you were counted as less than a person?

I didn’t think so!

 

Then you have those times when you want to go outside in the summer,

But you can't because you're afraid you'll get darker.

Which will show how ashy you are even more.

The struggle is too real.

 

There are so many problems that we black girls have

And no one who actually understands us.

You can say that you do,

But we both know that unless you went through it yourself

You can only imagine.