Colorblind
Location
You’re beautiful…for a black girl
You’re the hottest black girl I’ve ever seem
You’re so gorgeous and dark
You are independent black women
You have beautiful black skin
You’re black so I can’t see you at night
You’re black I don’t think he likes black girls
You’re black so if we get stopped by the police they’ll only search you
From adolescence these are the things I’ve been told
They’re always around the same
They’re always this ignorant
They’re always this infuriating
When I was a kid I didn’t see much color
This changed as the world around me took its eyes off the child
And focused them on the skin
When people would only see black
When people would not stop mentioning black
I was rudely shaken awake by the fact that…
I was black
Jessica was white
Hose was Mexican
Akinari was Japanese
I noticed, but I never wanted it to change me
I am black
She is white
And they are everything in between
And we will never forget it
Because we will never be allowed to forget it
Society savagely drills it in our head each day
You’re black, you’re white, Hispanic, Chinese
I know!
Why must you tell me every day?
Why is it important?
How is it ever a laughing matter?
Why can’t be love me?
Because of my skin?
I never cared about color
But as I was reminded I began to see differently
I just wanted to forget
I bathed in bleach
I hid from the sun
I scrubbed so roughly only hoping that it would peel off to reveal a layer of nothing
No color
It never did
I continued to have constantly alarms reminding me and I could never put them on snooze
You’re black. You’re black. You are black. You are only black.
And as I have grown
It is still as frustrating
I am proud of my strong heritage
We all should be
I am proud to be colored me
But I would rather be colorblind