I’m standing at the intersection of identity
Each piece of me yielding for another
But sometimes there’s a collision
The Black meets the woman
The woman meets the scientist
The scientist meets the faithful
The faithful meets the family
The family meets socioeconomic status
The status meets the perception.
Nonetheless, they all meet at the intersection.
- I. How Black are you?
How Black are you?
The darker the berry,
The sweeter the juice
But not everyone likes the juice that I have
I accommodate and bend over backwards
Jump over hurdles and dunk into hoops to entertain,
For little in return.
For some I am too sweet,
They need to water it down.
For some I am too tart.
I tell it how it is,
Wear my hair naturally with kinks and curls going in every direction,
With braids dangling down my back other days,
Nose stretching across my face,
Lips protruding outwards,
ready for constructive confrontation.
For some I am too bitter,
And they cannot handle me,
They wish I was sweeter.
For others,
They simply prefer water.
For most,
They try to make me into what works best for them,
What tastes best to them.
Bodies that look like mine,
Bought, sold, marketed,
To please and satisfy
While my people are left parched.- II. Are you a feminist?
Are you a feminist?
Feminism was something I fell into.
“Feminist” was a label slapped on to me,
The word a slur.
My independence insults the man’s role.
My unapologetic attitude unsettles the White woman.
My complexion frightens the masses.
I grew up in a family where
My mom was was the breadwinner
My great grandmother, Dear, was the matriarch
My grandmother brought blessings to the functions and not cookies
My aunt made me diary on every trip and never let me touch a door handle
My sister was an entrepreneur
My cousins were some of the best chefs I had ever met
Whereas the men in my life were less present,
My father hopped from woman to woman to escape responsibility
My Pop-Pop was not in good health for most of my life
My uncles focused on their nuclear families while my family was breaking apart.
I learned at an early age that it takes a village,
And my village was one of women.- III. I understood that women were capable of anything and everything:
I understood that women were capable of anything and everything:
Raising a family, running a kitchen, being nurturers and lovers,
Managing a business, making their own money, being highly educated.
In a world that hates women,
I was raised in a family that loved me immensely.
I walked into every room with a smile on my face,
care in my heart,
an opinion on my mind,
and support under my soles
This confidence in a young, dark woman was too overbearing for most.
Slurs of “feminist”, “gay”, and “man hater” were thrown at me.
I refer to them as slurs because these were allegations made with the intent of being insulting
As if there is anything wrong with any of those labels.
What was wrong is that I am a young girl,
Who knows what she wants,
What she thinks,
And how she will get it.
Now I wear my wrongs proudly
As a self-proclaimed F-word.
Are you smarter than man?
The thoughts in my head,
Head full of knotless braids down to my butt.
The argument on my tongue,
Tongue enforced with the power of my ancestors.
The opinion on my lips,
Lips lined with a black cherry lining.
Each a part of the weapon
Pointed, aimed, and shot at the man.
My wits a whip against the man.
My intelligence will go on to be questioned forever
As long as it continues to come out of my
kinky-headed and black lipped self.
It all hinges on my race and my sex.- IV. How do you find light in the darkness?
How do you find light in the darkness?
I would not be who I am
Nor where I am without God.
What one might see as a happy coincidence,
I see it as the path the Lord has pathed for me.
Where one may see a failure of a higher power through loss, death, war, sickness,
I see God bringing me through the suffering,
Blessing me with the ability to see beyond myself
Despite the world finding away to capitalize and center one’s own problems
I can see pass myself, and pass the suffering to see my purpose
To serve the Lord and help others
In the valleys and on the mountain top.
It’s because of my faith I see the discrimination in the policies around reproductive rights,
Housing, incarceration, education, policing.
I see the way the institution has stomped and spat on bodies that look like mine
Yet still believe that there is a way to accomplish the liberation of all.
My faith is not a theory to be proven,
Nor a weapon to be formed against Us.- V. How broke are you?
How broke are you?
Comparison is a killer.
It is natural and deadly
Even when you don’t try to compare yourself with others,
Simple things, like where you walk,
Where you eat, and where you live
Act as evidence of how much you have.
While one walks into the boutique on the corner to buy a dress to the game,
Another cannot even afford to pay for their dinner.
While one first years signs a lease a month into college,
A local resident struggles to find affordable housing in their own town.
While one is applying to summer internships in the fall,
Someone is working three jobs to sustain themselves at the moment.
Comparison kills,
But cash is king,
He runs everything around me.- VI. How woke are you?
How woke are you?
How well can you convey that you are not
Racist,
Sexist,
Homophobic,
Transphobic,
Antisemitic,
Colorist,
Classist,
Zionist?
How many different types of activist,
Feminist,
Anti-racist,
Leftist,
Womanist,
can you be before it is all an act?
What would happen if all the energy you put into performing activism
Went to operationalized activism?
What if one mustn’t go overseas to be a savior,
But in the classroom,
Office,
Hospital,
Store,
Dorm,
Train,
Restaurant
As a friend
And the allyship will follow.- VII. Who are you?
Who are you?
I am everything
Everywhere
Every generation
Everyone
All at once.
