Shades of Blackness

This piece is quite unfinished, but so is the story of the black race in America. As our story continues to shift and develop I'm sure this piece will too. It's untitled and probably won't EVER be done, I'll probably die not having finished it.

Untitled

I am apart of a nation within a nation

A nation of people united in division

A nation bonded by slavery

A nation struggling to grow.

My nation is misunderstood and stereotyped.

My nation screams and thrashes unnoticed.

My nation is diverse an ever changing.

This nation is grand and wide-spread.

And though fragmented is strong.

This nation contains the backs on which a great nation was built.

But knows nothing of it's past and it's future is unclear.

Hymnals and Folk songs gives voice to it's foundations.

..............

Sometimes I wonder if the reason we as black people are so divided as a race is because we are so diverse physically. It amazes me when people say we all look alike when our race has the most (NATURAL) variety. Our skin ranges from the palest ivory to the deepest coal and even those shades can be broken down further more with undertones of reds, yellows, and olives. Our eyes can be the lightest blues, grays, and greens or the deepest ebonies. Let's not even get started on our hair: from straight and frizzy to smooth and curly all the way to kinky and coil-y. All of these differences plus all the different nose, eye, mouth, and facial shapes make up for a very diverse race and that's before you throw in all the ways people can differentiate themselves from each other (perms, hair color, piercing, clothing, contacts and etc).

I think it's so hard for us to get past these differences that we can't see the bigger picture. It's been instilled within our race to hate each other for what we look like. Light skinned people look down on dark skinned people, no one likes the girl with the "good hair," everyone has to make fun of the "dark as tar" man. If we could see that no matter what the color of their skin or eyes or even what their hair texture is that we are all brothers and sisters then maybe we could be more united like our other minority counter parts (whose races have much much much less variety)

Live Laugh Love y'all

BLACK POWER (hehehe)