Being an up and coming black woman I have noticed a lot of people try to downgrade the features and characteristics we have that make us so great. Like we should feel ashamed of our kinks and curls when they are really beautiful. Or we should feel ashamed of how our bodies tend to have a little more curve than others by calling us fast because our clothes fit a little better. My favorite of all is when guys make it clear they do not want to date a girl because she likes wearing make up or likes to wear weaves in her head because it is not real. They want an all natural woman, which is OK, but do not discriminate against a woman just because she likes to play in make up or wear weaves. A black woman can change her hair and appearance in so many ways and society should accept her however she looks. Here I have wrote a poem about how I feel on the subject.

Because we can!

Why put all that makeup on your face?

What of your features are you trying to erase?

Learn to accept yourself as you are.

Stop hiding behind a mask.

Show people your scars.

Why even waste the time you look better without it?

Do you really need all that lipstick and powder?

Why do women feel they require makeup?

What is the real reason she decided to do her face up?

Because she can.

That dress is too tight.

That skirt is too short.

Those colors don't match.

Why are you wearing this and that?

What is the look you are going for?

Some days she wants to be sexy...

Some days she wants to just chill...

Not everyone will understand your style.

Your elegance makes simple eccentric.

They want you to hide your curves.

Whether little or small

To let them be shown off would be absurd.

A black woman should look like this.

She has an image to maintain.

What's her reason for wearing all this?

Because she can.

Fix your hair some.

Run a comb through those kinks

Faux locs are not acceptable.

Neither are those braids and twists and things.

Get all of that hair out of your face.

Pull it back and up.

Do something other than that puff.

They will never know how hard it is to deal with your hair

A simple puff took time and patience to get done.

And don't even let her get started on a bun.

Her hair has a mind of its own.

Girl, they will never understand.

There is no primp, press, and curl

Only detangle, deep condition, and twist.

The complexity is too much for them to even begin to understand.

Next time they ask why you wear your hair like that

"Because I can."

As black women not everyone will understand.

How we are dipped in honey and gold.

Laced in intricate complexity far beyond what the eyes can see.

They think they know how we feel.

They think they know what we see.

All we really want is for society to let us be.

Let us be free to wear what we please.

To allow our hair to roam free.

To sometimes change our identities.

Actually get to know us and stop assuming things.

Because you don't know and you never will.

Our reasons behind what we do and how we feel.

The next time someone asks our reasonings.

Say because we can.

Because we will.