how can we be one complete person but different depending on the situation?
well middle school told me i cant, but not directly
they gave me a word
fake
please, tell me who i am
please, tell me when I'm not being me
please
"A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him"
William James
last time i checked everyone in this room recognizes me, so recognize
all the social selves I have to offer
the first time someone called me fake
7th grade, a girl told me i was fake
because I had cornrows in my hair
"you're white" she said
"white girls can't wear their hair like that, stop being fake"
but my aunt is black and told me my hair is pretty like that
and I loved my cornrows, and I didn't know cornrows were black
I knew cornrows were hair, hair a part of me
a part I loved
it never crossed my mind that I was stealing from
black men and women with my white scalp, with my white hair
her black hands gentle on my head as she braided
"braided to the scalp" she said
you tell me my cornrows make me fake but they were the realest thing about me
I didn't have to wash my hair for a whole week, I stared into the mirror
admiring the beauty on my head
the hair style I am thankful for because it showed me what pretty looked like
it showed me melting ***
it showed me black hands, white scalp, work together
it showed me black hand, white hand, work together
it showed me human
and you tell me that's fake
what about human is fake?
my cornrows weren't fake, they were as real as the breath in your lungs
as real as the blood in your veins
as real as the white hands of my grandma
perfectly sculpting the hair on the black scalp of my aunt
"you're fake", shouldn't be for me, because nothing about me
is fake
especially my cornrows