The Average Black Girl

Today I happened to walk downstairs while my mother was watching The Arsenio Hall Show, and a girl named Ernestine Johnson was reciting a poem that caught my attention right away. It's called "The Average Black Girl", and I stopped in my tracks just to listen. 

The poem is centered around a black girl being told that she's not like the rest of her kind, basically. Because, as you know, all black girls are loud and ghetto, so being articulate and well-mannered is something to be admired. I know for a fact that I've been told that I wasn't like most black girls since I have long hair and I enunciate. It bothers me, honestly. 

All black girls are not the same. In case you didn't quite catch that, I'll repeat it: All black girls are not the same. This might come as a shock to some of you, but it's true. Not all of us have weaves, not all of us pop our gum, and not all of us will become teenage mothers.

 But that doesn't make me special, and it sure as hell doesn't make me "whiter." I don't think of myself as any less black just because I don't fall into stereotypes placed on me by society. I still don't pass the paper bag test, my grandparents were sharecroppers, and I still have the curves that dominate women in my culture. Trust me, I'm still black. 

The poem ends on an optimistic note, citing some of our most legendary icons as being the "average black girl." Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth. Ernestine Johnson says, "I'm not the average black girl. I can only aspire to be."

Me, too. Me, too.