Every Sane Sister Asks You
Creative Nonfiction by Talley
Every sane sister asks you why. Every black girl looks at you and asks with that gleam in their eye: Explicitly, explaining why every time you open your eyes there’s a reason why the media hates you. Even if you tried your best to be thankful for the events that freed your people. Eventually, you’ll grow to see that they were not even truly free and barely equals. Even the classes in high school lied to you about who you were. Essentially a goddess in every fucking myth and folklore. Every cell kissed by melanin and God’s piece of work.
Say it out loud when you look in the mirror. Say it out loud despite your appearance. See that you are loved in every demeanor. Sense the envy from the girls down the block who mock you when you sport box braids or locs. Savor every moment when your mother oils your scalp, and she introduces the sizzling of the hot comb to your edges and the kinks in the back. Show them how the chill bumps move from your arms to your scalp. Stand up with your shoulders back and show them how women can have both sass and class.
Shit like this shouldn’t be that difficult. Sadly, since the dawn of time, we’ve been treated less than equal. Sister locs will knock you down to part-time. Some sisters will think it’s a crime that you don’t adjust and spread the creamy crack throughout your hair and scalp. So, how does it feel to be black? Since when does it feel like being black is an act of crime? Sandra Bland had just forgotten her signal light, but somehow ended up in a cell and died alone. So have plenty more, but I only have 500 words and not a mausoleum for souls. Souls. Souls sailing, still sailing, since seas subsided swaying ships. So, since when does it feel like being black is an act of crime? See the answer is: since the beginning of time.
Ask your white friends if they feel a shift. Ask your white friends if they’d want to be black in a country like this. Assume they’ll say yes, and you’ll soon be pissed. A single white man in America will get his rocks off just to make a black woman submissive. Assess that later, but don’t keep your thoughts hidden. Areas around you where the black population might as well be zero are perhaps a perfect example of failed assimilation in the area. Arrange the patterns of “black women” which a white man claims that he has only dated… There’s something in common other than fetishization, baby.
Yes. Yes, there is hope. Yet it seems so far away from today’s brilliant youth. You can see it though, can’t you? Yara Shahidi. Yaa Gyasi. Yolanda Adams. Yaya DaCosta. You’ve seen them survive. You’ve seen them excel when they try. You look in the mirror and remind yourself that you’re the reason why they try.
Talley is a poet and graduate student in the MA Professional Writing program at the University of North Alabama with a concentration in Creative Writing. She is a Texan and enjoys listening to Jhené Aiko, getting tarot readings, and traveling to new places in her free time.
