Black is Back (With A Few Minor Technical Difficulties)

By: Jehniece Moore

They told us our kinks and curls weren’t beautiful, they told us our skin was too dark, they made fun of us for how our skin reacts to the sun. We were only considered “beautiful” if we had green eyes, light skin, long hair, and mixed with Spanish or white. We were labeled as “ghetto”, “ratchet”, and “loud”.

Our black men wanted white women. Some of our own kind wanted to step out of our race, only to have mixed babies. Now, I’ve seen so many posts on Twitter and Instagram talking about how people want cute, chocolate children. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE! Our black men are stepping up and starting to embrace the black Queen as beauty. Black women have experienced a lot in the past decade or so.

I’m so proud of the evolution since then. Black people stand together stronger than ever now. Nowadays every female is screaming “my melanin is poppin’” and it’s a beautiful transformation. We had to stick together, given all the negativity with our black brothers and sisters being killed left and right. Although we have gotten closer to each other and some people have even become “woke”, we still are separating ourselves.

This black comeback that we’ve experienced is great, but there are a few things that need to be nipped in the bud.

I will probably be the first natural black woman to say this, but A FEMALE SHOULD BE ABLE TO WEAR HER HAIR HOWEVER SHE PLEASES! That means, natural, relaxed, weave, dread locs, WHATEVER! How are we supposed to stick together as strong black women when naturals are shaming relaxed women because that’s what they’ve chosen to do with their hair?

Nonetheless, we all still are black Queens. I’ve been natural for 2 years but I’ve had every type of hair, except dread locs (cause I ain’t got time for all that). Going natural was a personal choice. I never did it because “I’m black and I should appreciate my natural beauty”. Beauty still happens without being natural.

Then we have this fight between light skins and dark skins. I was always ahead of the game because I’m caramel complected, in other words I’m in between light and dark. Enough about me.

Back in the day, all guys wanted was a light skin chick. Why? Some people are still delusional to believe that light skin females are prettier than dark skin females. WHERE? As if guys have seen every light skin and dark skin chick, then came to that conclusion.

Skin tone has NOTHING to do with anything. Guys can be so shallow at times. They turned us against each other. Light skin and dark skin women were at battle. For what? Why can’t all black skin tones be beautiful?
SKINNY OR FAT? Who cares!? Find a man who loves you the way you are! Some people have a faster metabolism than others, don’t discredit our blackness just because we’re not thick, or we don’t have a huge butt.

“Skinny girls are better”, “thick girls do it better”? Really? In all reality it depends on the man’s preference. I used have 2 backs basically because the one that’s supposed to be my butt lacks in fat. (Update: it’s still semi flat, just not as flat as it used to be :]). Females, most of the time black females, would push down my self-esteem a couple notches by telling me that I wasn’t going to find a man because I don’t have a “black girl butt”.

White girls can have a “black girl butt” so there’s no such thing. Our shape isn’t determined by being black and we don’t automatically get a nice shape just because we’re black. And if we’re black and we don’t have that “ideal” body, that’s okay. One isn’t better than the other one, just because we’re built differently.
Now that that’s taken care of, we should be able to evolve as black Queens even FURTHER! Let’s embrace each other, support each other, and realize we can be different, but still have the common denominator of being black.

Let’s celebrate each other. Support businesses by black women, go to see positive movies about black women. Get them talking positively about us. We need it! Continue to shine on black Queens.

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About the Author: Jehniece Moore, author of www.trapgrandma.org was born April 10th, 1994. She is a Mass Communications major, planning to graduate from Norfolk State University in December 2016. She started her writing career in high school when she became editor in chief for her school newspaper. Since then, she has used her writing abilities to raise awareness, and give her opinion on various subjects to help others. Her dream job is running her own magazine business. She plans to turn her blog into an online magazine, and from there her business will be born.