Set Us Free

We have been set free in literal terms...No we do not wake up at the crack of dawn each morning, faced with a breakfast of scraps the master and his family did not want. A breakfast of pig intestines, pig ears, pork fat and watery grits. No we did not walk out to the fields with handmade shoes flapping off of our feet, nor are we walking into fields in the blistering hot sun, barefoot. No we are not picking cotton until our fingers bleed. No we are not working hunched over with our children strapped to our backs, hot sun burning their faces. But we are still not free.
  We are belittled each and everyday, by a new opinion, hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable. Last year we were told we couldn't keep a man, that men did not want us. They told us that men of our own race couldn't stand us. This year we are told that we are unattractive. That our features are a curse, and that we ranked low. We are being told each and everyday that we are worthless.
 We relax our hair we are laughed at. We wear it kinky we are frowned at. We wear a weave, we are considered tacky. We grow our hair long, we are judged by our appearance. We wear our hair short and cropped, we are stereostyped. If we are light skinned, we are used for our looks. If we are dark skinned we are put down for our looks. If we are thin we don't have enough ass and breasts for you. If we are curvy we are too big for you. What do you want us to do? Our beauty is so exotic, so different, you can't catch up to it. You can't even define it. So you tear down what you don't understand. It is frustrating isn't it? Now black men have gone weak with influence, because now they don't even want us. According to them, we are too independent. Too needy. Too strong. Too weak. Our standards are too low. Our standards are too high. Not submissive enough. Too submissive. Which one is it? You can't decipher it. Because we don't have the problem. You have the problem. Look in the mirror. Reach within yourself and you pull out the root that is causing you to hate yourself deep within, that you have to tear down your queens from the inside out.