All tagged black girl

Series: Why We Hate the Boys in Blue, Part II

What’s the price for a black man’s life? I check the toe tag, not one zero in sight” – J. Cole, January 28th

 

[It is nearly impossible to turn on your TV, visit a news site, or open Twitter without encountering another story of police brutality and abuse of power. It seems like each week, we have a new name in a hashtag, memorializing the life of another man or woman lost to the boys in blue. This has inspired fear, anger, and for some of us, hate. Yes, we are growing to hate the police, and it is not without cause. The facts and figures point to a terrifying pattern of police violence against people of colour, especially blacks. Each of those facts and figures represent real lives—real human beings who live in fear of becoming another victim, another number on a chart, another body on the ground.  Over the past month, I have interviewed five young people who shared their experiences with and feelings toward the police. They, like me, had a lot to say, and it is so important that we listen to the people who live this fear. Here is part two of my three part series on police brutality.]

My "Black Girl" is On and it's Turned Up Loud

[This is the first poem I've ever posted on this blog. I've always found that my opinions and views on black issues are well-expressed in the form of poetry, because defiance--and nearly all my thoughts in this department are defiant--is an art. For this blog, I've stuck to prose because it allows me to put more words on the page, but poetry is a fount of feelings, and my feelings here are strong.

I am tired of defending myself from the negative space that the combination of my race and gender subjects me to. I am tired of having to prove that I am a good "black girl", before others can slap me with the bad "black girl" label. I am tired of the "black girl" label being a bad thing at all. So here's my definition of black girl, whispered defiantly to those who disagree, spoken triumphantly to those who understand, and written straight from the heart.]