For My Black Girls

By: Foluwasewa Sonubi, 8th Grade

​For my black girls,
Who take hours to do their natural hair,
Being judged and teased and beat and bled,
Just because of melanin,
Using creams and powders to 
Murder their natural skin.
        
For my black girls who perm and relax, 
And bleach and stretch and blow dry and
Texturize just because their hair is,
Unkempt, Unprofessional, too kinky,
Too coarse, too dry, too...me?

For my black girls who are told 
They are too loud, too ghetto, always angry,
Always disrespectful, never smart,
Never beautiful, never happy, never strong,
Not...white?

For my black girls who are very much smart,
We create fine art, Very much beautiful, 
Very much strong, Very much happy,
Very much creative.

For my black girls embracing their curls,
Conquering the world and speaking the truth, 
In the studio booth.
 
For all my black girls,
Who are congresswomen,
Who are mothers,
Who are entrepreneurs,
Who are astronauts,
Who flaunt their melanin.

They say "melanin pop,”
Because we will never stop, 
Won’t ever make us drop. 

Let us no more be just black girls,
Just ghetto girls, just loud girls,
Just dumb girls, let us be,
Strong black women,
Beautiful black women, 
Intellectual black women,
Confident black WOMEN
​
We are black girls!

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