Listening to my favorite poem, A Black Woman's Smile by Ty Gray-El, as he speaks about his love of a black woman's beauty and strong personality. Here I sit listening to the words of this poem understanding how much I love being identified as a black woman, a woman of distinction, honour, and strength, but with greatness comes feelings of depression, failure, and insecurity. Sometimes my body type isn't desired by society because of the curves that outline my hips or creases that surround my lips or even the curly texture of my hair that is often untamed to show the naturalness of my ethnic identity. It's hard to be a black woman there's no doubt about that, especially if you are one of the ones who is immersed into the white society unaware of the limitations that the color of your skin has bound you to - unknowing of the barriers and obstacles you must overcome to make a name for yourself. Being seen as an inferior for so long has caused many generations to be brainwashed with the ideas that will have to accept the fact that being a black woman is nothing more than being a piece of gum on the bottom of someone's shoe. Being seen as nothing more than a video girl, a high school dropout, or a pregnant whore who is unable to locate her baby daddy. Facing all of these stereotypes has forced me to be resilient to the expected situations that several black women face because I want to be the one who stands up for her people as an example of excellence to all those black women out there to overcome the odds and stand strong together to be that black woman that Ty Gray-El speaks of in his poem. I'm not saying this will be easy, but it is important for us to not look at each other as enemies whom we must constantly compare ourselves to, but rather as counterparts in the quest to have that "Black Woman's Smile"
Be sure to check out the reading of the poem on Youtube. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7RtnaU52Yo&feature=related
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