0
0
By Christie Survival Eyong
Posted on September 10, 2021
I am Black and beautiful,
Undeserving of your ridicule,
Not to mention all of your abuse.
Although between us there’s no similitude,
My skin colour doesn’t make me less human.
I am proud of who I am,
And you can’t change who I am.
Try putting yourself in our shoes,
And you’d understand the life we live we didn’t choose,
The skin we own we didn’t choose,
And neither did you.
Educate yourself please,
How hard can it be?
I am not a threat.
Black people are not threats.
Yes, I said we are not threats.
We are all humans;
Still don’t know why you call my brothers criminals,
Classify as animals,
Treating them as negligible and minimal.
My people who built the land you claim and rule
Are the same people you treat as you choose;
Why so cruel?
Because of our skin colour?
Okay, you call us people of colour,
But your skin is also coloured.
Because of this colour
You deny us loans, liberty, human rights and violate us.
Retain wrong stereotypes of us;
Uncivilized, savages, without morals, that’s how you see us.
Classify us as super predators.
The system we live under seems to be designed against us.
Why so upset when you see us?
Hating on us,
Because you see us as threats?
What did we ever do wrong to deserve ungracious treatment?
Your treatment always leaving us in fear and causing so much inconvenience.
Why are we always in disagreements?
We seem to never come to an agreement.
Why though?
Do you have anything to say about that? Nah you don’t.
You say slavery ended in the year 1865,
But it’s still present after so many years, currently, 155.
You still treat us the same way,
But in a sophisticated way.
Get rid of your misconceptions,
All of your ugly perceptions,
All of your absurd assumptions,
As well as your discriminations.
Teach your children how to treat our children as equals irrespective of the dissimilarity
And not as minorities.
Because, in these animals you see, are vulnerable hearts and humans
Some brothers,
Sisters,
Fathers,
Mothers,
Daughters,
Sons,
Wives,
Husbands,
Close friends,
Best friends.
We deserve better and we should not be treated with second-class status.
Some say no matter what we say, no matter how much we shout, y’all refuse to hear us.
But I know y’all hear us,
And it’s time to start standing up for us.
Change starts with y’all being for us
And not against us.
Please educate yourselves,
Learn about Black experiences,
Learn from our experiences,
My skin being contrary to yours doesn’t make me a threat.
You need to stop seeing us through such a lens.
Stop looking at the colour of the skin before the personality.
Enough of the violence and brutality.
Stop leaving us with scars that don’t heal,
Because being scarred for life is real.
The legacy of racism has continued forever,
And it’s time to start a new era;
Where everyone is treated fairly irrespective of skin colours, tribes, languages, or races,
Where our Black men don’t occupy the most spaces in prisons
for uncommitted crimes,
Where there are equal privileges and rights.
We need unity, peace, and love.
We need to come together as one.
————————-
Christie Survival Eyong is a 19 year old Nigerian who studies International Business at Carleton University. She has completed three years of her program and will be going to her fourth year in September. In her spare time, she loves writing, dancing, listening to music, putting outfits together, cooking and baking. She recently launched her baking/cooking business called Enjoyment Cuisine and recently celebrated the first anniversary of her writing blog, Rise Up.
Through her life experiences, she has grown to be the woman she is today. She encourages people from all of her life experiences. As a firm believer in Christ with a different perspective on life, she takes both the good and bad, wraps them up and presents them to the world as a gift. Writing has become a powerful tool for her to impact lives. Christie has a writing blog where she shares beautiful creative pieces every month and contacted via her email at ChristieEyong@gmail.com.
