Black is not the color of evil,
nor is it the depths of despair.
Black is the color of my skin.
No other color would I want to wear.
Black is not the color of hate,
nor is it a victim of your guilt.
Black is the color of my skin,
and the foundation upon which everything was built.
Black is not the color of racism,
nor is it a burden that I bear.
Black is the color of my skin,
and the color of my beautiful curly hair.
Black is not a color you give to me,
nor is it the one I let you choose.
Black is the color of my skin,
and it comes in so many different hues.
Black is not a color that fades away,
nor will it let you strike it down.
Black is the color of my skin,
from ebony all the way to brown.
Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2015 Shelby I. Courtland
shelbycourtland 
Beautifully worded, Shelby.
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Thank you Jeff! I appreciate your comment, as always! I think everyone out there gets it that “Black IS the color of MY skin and I would have it NO other way, despite everything that is thrown MY way because Black IS the color of MY skin!
Again, thank you!
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@Shelby
Beautiful poem! You’re a very talented writer!Keep writing, sis.
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Thank you OriginalWoman13! I promise to keep writing and I hope that you will do likewise. You have a powerful message and we all need to read it and pass it on!
Again, I thank you!
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I might need to put this one on the fridge to remind myself! Back in the 70’s when I was a teenager, my ‘white’ family was getting ready to go somewhere, I went into the bathroom looked into the mirror and screamed, my mum yells out “What’s wrong” and I said, very dramatically, “OMG I’m black! Why didn’t you tell me? Oh what are we going to do?” We all laughed so hard, but these days I think about why I would do such a thing… I’ve seen others do a similar thing many times since. Like you Shelby, I LIKE the colour of my skin, however I often get caught up in other peoples perceptions. Another awesome poem. Thank you.
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Oh Robyn, your story touches me, it does. Bless your heart. Despite and in spite of everything that is thrown our way, we love the color of our skin. Some of us may have questioned this color that we live with because of all the negativity that it gets, but here I refuse to fall for the lies that would have me hating my own skin color.
And yep, those perceptions of us by others, some of us will never be able to overcome them, more’s the pity and I have seen much of it myself. But be that as it may, I will continue to look in my mirror and love the image that is me.
Thank YOU for liking this one and for sharing a little about you with us.
Much love,
Shelby
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What really matters Shelby dear, is what color our soul is dressed with…
My skin? Your skin? White, black, red or yellow? As long as our hearts are painted with the rainbow colors and we walk in the light side of life, who cares what color our skin is?
Blackness exists only in deeds, and deeds are the only difference between human beings…
Big hug from your virtual friend,
Isabe
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Isabel, if only we lived in a world of people that looked beyond mere complexions and instead look at what makes each and everyone of us unique. If only we lived in a world of people that believes diversity is beautiful, but instead we are ‘grouped’ and one ‘group’ points at another ‘group’ and the stereotypes begin to fly. We have millions of people wanting what the other has and therefore, are never, ever satisfied with themselves.
If only we just lived as opposed to making life more complicated than it need be. I know that there are many Black women who can relate to this poem because we bear the brunt of so much ridicule and stereotyping. We are dehumanized and denigrated and we are quite often portrayed in a negative light. I’ll not stand silently by. I will speak out against this as it is impacting too many young African (Black) girls and women. I want them to look into their mirror and love the image that stares back at them.
Thank you so much Isabel for your comment.
Hugs,
Shelby
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Dear Shelby, thank YOU! You brought tears to my eyes… You, dear Shelby, are one of the very few human beings who really make a difference in the world. Thank you for that!
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Isabel, you know that you have brought tears to my eyes, many, many times and I want you to know that I will always value each and every time you stop by my blog.
If everyone had in their heart what you have in yours, the people of this world would be living in harmony with one another!
Keep shining Isabel! Keep shining! You are the light that we need!
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This is so powerful. I stumbled across this site while visiting HungLikeJesus on Tumblr..I love their pov and am more in love with yours. The words you speak are exactly my thoughts but you express them some much more eloquently than I ever could. Keep it up sis. I am non-religious…it breaks my heart to see my people chained by a religion that constrains the mind and seemingly our ambitions. To many times have I seen us “endure” unnecessary hardships in hopes of receiving a “blessing.” I’ve had the discussion with my Dad many times about how we as a people have lost our purpose. Post Jim Crow, MLK and Civil rights we no longer have a purpose to fight for so instead we have regressed to Willie Lynch were we are our own worst enemy. But in the end we are only in control of ourselves so I have made the decision to be conscious….to quote James Baldwin- To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. Once again thanks so much for the taking the time to express these wonderful thoughts.
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Thank you Lashaun620! I sincerely appreciate the compliment and your comment on this one. Yes, I am a big fan of HLJ!
And you are so right, we are ‘chained by a religion that constrains the mind and seemingly our ambitions’. Those of us who are descendants of slaves should not be worshipping the ‘god’ of those that enslaved our forefathers. How could a ‘god’ condone what was done and is still being done to us to this very day? Their ‘god’ is not my ‘god’ and yes so many Black people take that mess and run with it all the while knowing that whites whipped the slaves for practicing their own religion and then indoctrinated them into that heathen mess they call religion to this day. I’ll not be a party to that.
When my father was dying of colon cancer and the ‘church’ came to hold prayer service, I walked out because I was the one who took him for his treatments and talked with his doctors and I knew there was no hope. Prayer didn’t work because they were praying to nothing. They were praying to no ‘god’ of ours. That’s for sure. The majority of African people are Muslim and if our forefathers had not been stolen and dragged over here, we would not be worshipping some blue-eyed prophet and walking around singing hymns about the holy ghost. If ‘god’ couldn’t find a nice bed for his ‘only’ son to be born in, is he gonna find one for us? We are seven times more likely to homeless and we make up half of the homeless population. So, who or what is looking out for us? It’s not the churches and it’s not the NAACP. They’re busy loving all up and down on some Donald Sterling.
We are on our own, that’s for certain. We have always been. And like you, it breaks my heart to see so many of us buy into their bullshit and to know that we have so much purchasing power but we just don’t do what we should do with it. We can always be found handing money over to the Koreans or the Chinese but do we take that money and help the Black community become self-sufficient? No. I have often asked the question: how many Koreans or Chinese or Jews are living next door to us? None. But they take our money and that is all they want from us and we give it to them and we continue to make them more and more rich while we sit back in abject poverty. It makes no sense.
As you can see, I’ve got my hands full in trying to get us to wake up and do the right thing for US. But though it seems a daunting task, I’m going to keep trying because we are worth it!
And again, thank you so much for stopping by. I really do appreciate your comment. Don’t be a stranger!
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Blood on your mobile phone
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