03/02/2024
I am Remarkably Black! To this day I love my features and color unconditionally because of my mother! With simple gestures of buying black dolls and having my sister and I read about black phenomenal women truly set the course. In my youth black dolls were very uncommon and my mom knew self-imagery would be important to build for her girls and with that charge she built our confidence when the world would continually try to tear it down. In my eyes who ever developed this concept of black not being beautiful are truly the ones who need to seek therapy.
Growing up as a child to Jamaican parents in America is not for the faint heart. I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens and attended public schools in NY from primary to secondary. The saying if you can make in NYC you can make it anywhere is true to life! New York City will groom you to be ever resilient and confident! I’ve had so many memories as a young black girl which sometimes broke my confidence but my mom and grandmother were always there to build it back up.
Throughout my youth I was always called names such as “Oreo”, “Bougie”, “White Girl”, “Barbie”, “Valley”, and the list goes on whether it was from family or people I grew up with in general. To this day I despise those connotations because I feel it’s a way of separating an individual from living in their truth. If I am Black why must I fit a norm or stereotype that society has created for me. One song that comes to mind by India Irie “I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations, I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.” We are all just simply reflections of our souls and I will always continue to live in my truth.
I have to give lots of credit to my mom and grandmother they both ensured that my sister and I were kept occupied and off the street. There was no extracurricular activity or religious event we did not attend whether it was church from 9am - 9pm on Sundays, YMCA from 11am - 7pm on Saturdays, and sometimes during the week after school programs until 6pm. Some of my fondest memories were attending ballet, tap, dance, and ice skating. In addition, we attended gymnastics only because our dance school was house in the same building. In those days young black girls were unheard of attending those sort of activities and to this day I am not quite sure what were the expectations for young black girls of our time. But who cares…we should all keep living our dreams!
In this here Black History Month I am here to say I am Remarkably Black and enjoy being extraordinary even when it’s not normal. Although I am not fond of only celebrating Black History for a month as I feel Black History should be celebrated throughout the year. I would like to pay homage to all the Black Beautiful Women who have broken down stereotypes and paved way for all Black women in this here society. Keep living your truth because Black is Beautiful even when you do extraordinary things!
