Racial Equality is A Lot like Leg Hair

I am an African-American female and I wouldn’t want to be anything other than that. It’s so easy for people in my generation to get caught up with looking a certain way and criticizing other people for how they look. They will judge the amount of makeup a girl has on as soon as she walks in or crack jokes about a guy’s shoes if it’s not the latest pair. We’re even judged by our hair, as if its composition is something that is under our control. But that’s not the point. What I’m trying to get to is that there is enough for us to be jugdged on and categorized without adding extra hate to each other. Go on twitter and you see “Light skin vs. Dark skin”. I’m pretty sure we’re all still people of color.

One thing I will say about my people is that we are strong as hell. Things just keep getting thrown at us, but we still find a way to prosper. I love the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter because it seems that some people don’t realize that all lives matter, but right now, we’re talking about the black ones. Too many black lives are being taken and I hate that. I’m afraid to read the news because seeing another unarmed, innocent black kid dead is more than I can handle. This has made our race rise together and we’re supported by other races. We’re all human. Why can’t we treat each other as such?

This has to stop, don’t you agree? The cycle of shaving away stereotypes, centuries of hatred, and misuse of power has to end. But it just keeps coming back like stubborn leg hair.

Come on, America. It’s 2015. Not 1619.