Origin (2018)

I came across a 15-year-old girl

Who was ashamed of her Black skin,

I’m wondering when and where this line of thinking begin,

Her favorite doll babies were Barbie and Ken,

I came across a 15-year-old girl

Who was ashamed of her Black skin,

I rounded up a crew of Sistas to teach her

That she was beautiful on the outside and within,

It is ‘Black pride’ and ‘Black is beautiful’ that I pen…

Nowadays more of us are on magazine covers,

Still, the damage has been done,

And psychologically many of us still suffer,

With low self-esteem,

Taught to be ashamed of ourselves,

Hell, on the regular

I see Black males devaluing Black females,

I aim to put an end to those sickly tales,

Rhymes proliferate knowledge, wisdom, and understanding,

To bring life to these undervalued,

Underappreciated lifeless mannequins,

Back in the day, they did everything they could

To say that if you are Black, you are no good,

It is in this chaos where a little Black girl

Can get lost in the woods,

Confused and misunderstood,

And wishing her skin was whiter than those sheets

Worn by those cross burning peckerwoods,

Was it the countless soap operas

That showed visions of a better life,

Or the failures and bad examples in her family

Keeping her up at night,

Eugenics would have you thinking it was blood type,

All nonsense,

So, I flood hype,

With that Blackness that keeps your soul right,

Don’t automatically praise him or her

Just because they hold mics,

Their words mold tikes,

And at times poison is spewed,

Along with their poisonous views,

(Look Mom, he said a rhyme),

Yeah, but it’s way past your bedtime,

How about you dream of a story,

Of a little Black girl,

And a little Black boy’s voyage to glory,

“Be proud, be beautiful, for me,”

God’s voice…