Poetry On Odyssey: "Am I Not Black Enough?" | The Odyssey Online
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Politics and Activism

Poetry On Odyssey: "Am I Not Black Enough?"

Confusion in space.

Vianka Cotton
Mar 19, 2018
UNC Greensboro
200
Poetry On Odyssey: "Am I Not Black Enough?"
Dark Girls

Am I not black enough?


Despite my kinks,

Despite my naps,

am I not black enough?


Despite my will,

Despite my drive,

am I not black enough?


My words are pronounced too sharp.

My skin too light. My lips too small and my cheeks too red.

I don't eat like a black person.


I smile too large. I love too hard.

I walk modest.

I don't talk like a black person.


Am I not black enough?

I suffered like you.

I hurt like you.

I'm angry just

like you.


You tell me I don't have the qualifications

to be proud.


I don't carry the same weight you carry,

but I carry the burden of black ,

being discriminated,

being violated,

being degraded.

being judged.


All because of melanin,

which has infiltrated my skin, by the hand of cosmos


I would wash it away if I could.

Scrub so hard until I turn the color you want me to be.

I did that before.

You did that before?

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