We Are All Human

When I started school

The first thing they taught me

Was color

Blues and yellows

It was all a world of wonder

To me

But also made me think

Why don't I look like all the others?

Those children were pale

Teachers blonde with eyes different colors

The charts even listed

Red orange yellow green blue purple white

And black Where was I?

I didn't match any of those colors

I walked up to the teacher and asked

Where am I on this chart

As I pointed to my arms

Do u know what she told me

She pointed to the chart and said

You are here

You are black

And I thought, wait a second

These colors don't match

I looked around, and realized just how

Different I was because now I am labeled as black.

Such a contrast, white and black

When You think of black

You think of darkness

Of evil

Of death

I was labeled as black

White on the other hand is so angelic

Like the clouds above our heads

White was peaceful

White was pure

I was labeled as black

I went home that day

Told my mom what I learned in 1st grade

Tears rolling down my cheeks

To my chin,

I took a breath from within and asked

Momma am I black?

She didn't understand why I was so confused

I'd been myself since I was born

But I didn't know that I was different

I had no idea that I was black

May sound crazy to you

But This meant to me

That society

Has told to a five year old

A five year old

That she was evil

She was death

She was nothing but the shadows that followed those

Of lighter colors

Because she is black.

The civil war may be over

And it may say that we are equal

Under the law of this country

Protected by

The flag that only waves colors of blue, red,

and white

So if we are equal

Then why are we still labeled as black

Whenever I fill out applications

For colleges or associations

I am forced to pick what I

Was told I was

Black

I am not that at all

No one can tell me who I am

But I know what I am not

I am not death

I am not evil

I am not the darkness

Therefore I can not be black

The word "colored"

Is so funny to me

When referring to those

Of African ethnicity

Because black is not a color

But a shade

With variations fro white to gray

Way more than 50

Then it hit me

We are all the same

Just different shades

Like it or not

We are all one race

We are all human