Being compared to Beyoncé as this seems to be the only young successful or attractive black woman that everyone seems to know,
Hearing everyone say that they want to be on Oprah one day…mainly because she’s seems to be the number one successful black woman that they’ve seen that has power in the TV world, and knowing that half of the people that want to associate with her know nothing about her history or her former struggles as a black woman…but just want to get in with her just to raise their profile and image,
Seeing Meghan Markle slaughtered in the media for months and months on end…just she is half black,
Having to hear yet another black woman say that they didn’t get the job and they know it’s just because they are black,
Being told that my hair is not soft enough and that it needs to be more European,
Having to be sweet 24/7 because if you dare get angry…you’ll be automatically labelled as an angry black woman,
Knowing that you always have to work 10 or 20 times harder than white people, because we are often unaccepted if we just do good work,
Seeing videos of mixed women being told that their hair is too bouncy, too large, too big for work and that they must tie it up, while white women can wear their hair down every day with no problem,
Hearing and seeing yet another case (in the media) of a black man that has been unfairly killed just because he’s black,
Knowing that black boys can’t (or apparently they shouldn’t) wear hoodies and caps….because they are instantly seen as criminals (even if they are good, harmless people),
Seeing successful black athletes labelled as British when they are successful but called African when they fail,
Knowing the struggles that so many mixed couples go through everyday just because a good percentage of society still doesn’t fully accept interracial couples.
Knowing that it’s not always safe to travel to certain countries/places because of the colour of your skin,
Hearing people say things like ‘Oh you’ll definitely get that opportunity because they’ll will probably think that you are mixed, because your are light skinned’…then realising that they are clearly indicating that darker people won’t get good opportunities because of their skin too
(back-handed compliments).
The list goes on and on.
Some other things that we observe and notice are far too too hurtful to post and share. Sometimes it’s just a look that you get from someone who feels superior…that can make you feel bad,
But one things for sure,
Freedom comes when we speak out and share these things,
It comes when we are willing to have these tough conversations.
It comes when say enough is enough I’m tired of all of this racism, let’s come together once and for all and start loving each other regardless of our skin tones and skin colours.
It’s time for us to do better.
– Queen Chioma
