Because You Are A Queen

by Mikenzi

November 1, 2018

4th grade finally got new seats

the teacher sat me next to the boy of my dreams

Kalief

black boy with glasses

I knew everything about him even what his favorite class is;

I had to get ready for the day

of course

it was my first time sitting next to my future husband

So I begged my mom to put cornrows in my hair

cause Kalief had never seen me with them

No other style could compare

It took my mom three hours to complete the whole look

And trust me I knew my whole class would be shook.

The day had arrived, I put on a plaid skirt and crazy socks my signature look

As my mom was driving me to school I sang

I’m not the average girl from your video

And I ain’t built like a supermodel

But I learned to love myself unconditionally

Because I am a queen -India Arie

This song gave me more confidence than Muhammad Ali

I was finally dropped off at school

I saw Kalief so I smiled and waved.

We both made our way to class

I knew after today things would never be the same

I strutted into class and sat in my seat

Made sure my desk was all nice and neat

I turned to my right ready to speak to Kalief, but his friend Jared yelled

Mikenzi looks like a dweep

She looks like a boy and her hair is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen

Right Kalief

Kalief laughed and nodded his head in agreement

Those words yanked every feeling of beauty from my veins

His laughter caused an earthquake that made my confidence crumble like a building in 1921 on Black Wall Street

That day I realized I wasn’t beautiful to them.

Hair of wool too hard to be comb

Skin too dark too ever be honed as beautiful.

I'm not the only black girl that’s felt like that

I mean these white standards are just whack

You tell black girls whose hair defies gravity that it needs to be straight

If they ever want to be considered beautiful

Because the hair that grows out of their head

isn't good enough

So, I did what society told me to

I placed a flat iron to my hair till I heard the sizzling sound of my ancestors' skin burning from being branded like cattle

I removed a part of me as if I took a razor and shaved my head like colonizers did to the Black kings and queens before me.

I became a slave to unrealistic standards

Working day and night till I reached the goal that society had set for me

All because I wanted to be seen as beautiful.

But I am not enslaved anymore and now I know

That my hair that defies gravity is the most beautiful thing that the eye can see

That the melanin in my skin glows brighter than sunbeams shooting down on me

That my big lips are the only things that can blow cocoa butter kisses from mountains to sees

But to all those little black girls who get on their knees every night praying that one day they will have fair skin, straight hair, and eyes as blue as the ocean.

Your Black is beautiful

And You're not the average girl from the videos

And you might not be built like a supermodel

But you'll learn to love yourself unconditionally

Because you are a queen

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