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The Brown Girl Problem

Updated: Apr 8

Brown skin, melanin touched

Like dirt and soil and life

The colors of your family

and ancestors forgotten within history;


You called it a curse.


Under societal conditioning

You never realized until now that

It is a tightly wound cord

That connects you to your heritage.

Your people had been taught to hate it

By those who stole from them

And you fell prey to the same pain.


All brown girls know the feeling

Of hating our own skin.

We try to escape from it,

Bleach it and scrub it

Until we are clean and bright

Because that is what we are told it means

To be beautiful.

We must be fair and lovely,

Light and pristine

To be seen as beautiful.