Black Teens

We have officially mastered the art of adaptation, but nobody knows it but us…

As a black teenager, it has become apparent that my achievements have to be twice as good as my white peers. It has become obvious that society already has a pre conceived concept of how I should be; how as a black girl I shouldn’t try and cherish my body and my mind. How my hair should be long and straight, that my skin should be fair and light, and that my speech should not be truth but soothing words for my peers.

I have come to see how my black teenage brothers cannot speak affluent words of wisdom, because they will be seen as just trying to be white. Society seems to have already concluded that my black teenage brothers should be in a gang or just in the street corners waiting to rob the next person – as if they do not have anything to offer society.

But nevertheless, the majority of us black teens adapt. Very few of us break the mold. Not that we can’t, we just need to see what's inside of us. We need to see that our culture and our backgrounds make or nations what they are. We need to look into our history and see how we have been able to change the course of our fellow people’s lives. Harriot Tubman said “I freed a thousand slaves, I would’ve freed a thousand more, if only they knew they were slaves.”

We need to come to a realization of self.

We don’t need to adapt! We don’t need to break the mold… we make our own.