Momma says this soap will make you clean.
But I never knew it would wash me of my melanin.
Take all my pride and strip me of my royalty.
My riches…gone.
My beauty…gone.
It took me years of chaos to love my skin.
And with one soap I watched my kingdom fall.
The kingdom that I’d built was crumbling.
I walked with shame.
I walked with anger and shame.
I couldn’t be angry at my mother because I knew she was a victim.
How could you be angry at the Victim?
I couldn’t be angry at her
I had to be angry at the system.
Angry at the social construct that built this monster.