Just because the color of my skin
I somehow never fit in
With all of those girls
The ones with the pale skin and springy curls
Whose eyes are brilliant shades of the rainbow
Unlike my natural hair
Eyes dark brown, and skin unfair
I can sit in the mirror and stare
Wondering why people like me aren't on the magazines
That I read
Or on the commercials I see on T.V.
Thinking some days that I'm not pretty
Because I'm not like them
Those girls who I see everyday
Who will never know the way it feels
To be a black girl
Have people say
You're pretty for a dark girl
Like my skin tone affects my beauty
How I am suppose to look
I'd date you if you weren't black
So when did being attractive become a matter of race?
When did I not become enough
All due to the color of my face?
But they don't understand
The one that hurts the most
Worse of all
Worse of all
Is
YOU DON'T ACT LIKE A BLACK GIRL
Oh
Excuse me for having class
Not shaking my ***
Having decorum
And speaking my mind; politely
My mother raised me right
To act right
Showing me that life would
be tough for girls like me
Girls who didn't fit into the stereotypes of our race
Girls who dressed modestly
Talked properly
Girls who didn't fight
Girls who acted white
But I always thought I was just acting right
But no one ever saw
That I was just being me
Because you see
I may be a black girl
But a black girl isn't all I'll ever be

They say if I want to fit in

Than I should

Walk like them

Talk like them

Dress Like them


They say that beauty

Is in the eye of the beholder

Well, someone needs to inform them

Because they say that in order to be pretty

Or to fit in

You have to be like them


It's everywhere you go

On the television on your favorite show

On the billboards you pass on the road

On the books that you read

On the movie screens

On the cover of magazines


They are there

They are what we all wish to be

They have the perfect faces

With the perfect teeth

With the perfect long legs

And the perfect bodies


We know that they aren't that perfect

But we still want to be like them

We know that they use filters

And have the top make-up artist working on them



Yet we still

Want to spend hundreds of dollars

So that we can have those clothes that they wear

Have that look  

By buying that $20 make-up


They rule our lives

They rule our minds

But why ?


Why do we let them decide

We need to take back our power

We need to show some self pride

We should stop looking to them

To tell us what pretty is

We need to become a me

A I'm pretty
Instead of a their pretty
We need to look at ourselves

And set the standard

Because your you

So you should be you

Instead of a them

I** can still see your sky blue eyes as you smiled at me on our long walks
Lost in you so much that I felt you could do nothing wrong
Oblivious to the fact that you never seemed to be there when I needed you
Validating all of your lies to the people around me, because you said
that they'd never understand
Eager to please you no matter the cost
Yeilding to your wishes, because that 's what you said people in love do
Obsessed. That's what my friends said you were. But I wouldn't let them sway me from your hold
Unable to live without you