Our melaninated, brown skin
Elevating defiantly despite the odds
Despite the attempts to block and segregate spaces
We thrive
We survive in spaces that don't reflect us
We continue to defy
the flawed portrayal of our communities in society
We reject subliminal messages that say we don't belong
Changing the course history by writing ourselves in
We challenge all these narratives
and yet we still feel uneasy
In spaces
Where we are the only
Some have the privilege
Of not having to look around the room reflexively
And knowing that there are less than two
that looks like you
Images of black people on the covers of Magazines
Making eyes glitter like marbles
When instead it should just be normal
A Standard Sight, Ordinary and Beautiful.
To acknowledge and think of privilege
Is to be aware and thoughtful
Of what you take for granted and others can't
We live in a country we like to call a mosaic.
Yet we are all fighting to remember
the patterns and parts that indicate us
Truly at times, we feel unseen.
It is like the spotlight shines bright
but we still manage to be the shadows in between.
We fight to break down archaic spaces
where representation is not yet present
Where public servants make decisions
That doesn't reflect (all) the people they serve
For too long, our presence has been confined
Between these lines
And yet beyond
Our hidden footprints are left behind.
In different realms
depicting our stories,
We run the risk of believing a single story,
Not only would they be untrue
but also incomplete
There must be attention to
the way inclusivity and diversity are thought through
So we are no longer just bodies filing spaces for
Community consultations
but rather factored into equations,
With introspections taken into consideration
The call for representation grows stronger each day,
We yearn to depict our stories,
For our narrations must reshape the world.
In uncharted waters, our presence is sown.
Our melaninated, brown skin
Elevating defiantly despite the odds
Despite the attempts to block and segregate spaces
We thrive
We survive in spaces that don't reflect us
We continue to defy
the flawed portrayal of our communities in society
We reject subliminal messages that say we don't belong
Changing the course history by writing ourselves in
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