Dark chocolatey skin bears the flag of red
Coloured, a sin; these feelings are cultivated and bred
So they're brought to toil on white soil
Reminiscing the scent of their native land, the sweet patchouli oil.
As they trudge through barren land, lost hope and ****** soles mark their path
This coloured discrimination instigates fair feelings of wrath
A helplessly agitated mind and yet they stand still
With wistful eyes, devoid of their free will.
At night, they sing to themselves songs of a land far away
As they drift off to a restless sleep, dreaming of being back there someday
Scalding feelings of entitlement and vengeance have taken birth and clouded minds
Working on indigo and cotton fields, on merriment and mirth have been drawn white blinds.
No matter how clean the records, the message is loudly heard
"When looked upon as a blue jay, you can never be a mockingbird"
These words passed down through generations deny them their say
Day to night and night to day but time couldn't change the black man's dismay.
Wanted is colour in life but shunned is coloured life
This clash of colours holds no value, only adding on to people's strife
So while i stand here trying to fathom out the meaning of it all
I hope, someday, realisation will take down this coloured wall.

They looked at her,
"Who are you?"they asked,
"A stranger to myself"she replied

Since a young age of buried my face in fairness creams
every face wash a slap on my face because I knew I was trying to change my identity
I knew I never be beautiful because I was a skin tone which was ugly
Looking in the mirror everyday I became my own critic
No thigh gap, no skinny waist, dark skin were few of those countless insecurities
Sidecasted glances would fall my way and this I knew was a guarantee
So I asked myself why can't I be
good enough so that the world can see
from every face this one on answer I got
ask yourself "isn't my body,my colour, enough to tell me?"
I asked my ma does this really matter
for I'd thought that more than an hourglass shaped body
what matters is being a good somebody
I thought in my scars flaws and imperfections
I wore my prized perfections
That aunty sipping her wonderful brown tea
looks at me ,exactly the same colour as her drink of pleasure
nonchalantly suggests this list of wonderful  fairness creams
the irony in this almost killed me
And that's when I decided no more is it gonna be this way
Im gonna become my first lover
look in the mirror, smile at what stares back at me
I am not going to let these things make me feel small
I am proud of them, they make me who I am
So I'm gonna go out and make a change
the entire world's gonna be My stage
the people are gonna sit and listen
and I'll smile as I see certain faces glistening with shame
and for most, insecurities leaving their brains
we'll make this world a better place
so no more will skins be bathed in cosmetics and creams
I am a brown beauty and I proudly say this,
So why just fair and lovely say brown and beautiful
forget snow White, say hello to chocolate brown
I'll write my own story, my own fairytale
when magazines stop putting fair girls on covers calling them brown
when fair won't be what's "fair" anymore
when people start looking beyond body types and skin colours
when instead of the search for fair people
we begin searching for people who treat family
when someone's stand on the humanitarian scale
Will start mattering more than on the fairness  scale
a world where all colours are the same
where love comes in all shapes and shades
Where insecurities about our bodies will start to fade
will go from being ideal to becoming our reality