Love Poem: Beautiful Black Girl
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Written by: Linda Carter

Beautiful Black Girl

Beautiful Black Girl

Beautiful black girl your shade is divine, your silky lacquer skin looks so rich against mine.  You are so beautiful, in time you will know it, you will be refined.

I lived so long with the shame of being so dark.  I did everything I could, I scrubbed as if my skin were the bark of a tree that could hopefully be relieved.

Each day I would wake hoping today is the day, I just know I’m going to be lighter and great because of all the skin lightner I used the night before.  I slowly raised my eyes, hoping for my surprise, only to my demise. I was still that deep, dark, black little girl.  My heart took a whirl!
No I wouldn’t get any whiter so my heart got even flightier because I’ve already been enlightened that this world had no room for anyone that wasn’t lighter than me. 

A little black girl that does not know her worth.  You’ve been told everything but the truth about the brilliance and beauty that lies within you.  This did not bring you happiness and mirth you’ve felt this rejection and sadness from birth.

People laughed at your skins lovely tone, you even hid and often moaned because you didn’t know you were the silky black gold you owned.  Your shame is not just your own you loaned it to all the other little silky black girls that did not know their worth.

Then the world saw the stunning electricity of Anok, and the beautiful, talented qualities of Lupita strut their stuff with their silky black flowing rich radiant skin. 
 
They can not help but see the stunning beauty outside and also within.  After all of these shameful years, the prizes they win.
Now there’s a wave of the future for little black girls.  No more insults will stick that may be hurled at those dark little girls.  Instead they will flow uninhibited through this life dazzling and spirited as a beautiful black girl, like a butterfly should.

Inspired by the life of Lupita Nyong’o