i ask myself questions like what makes

july 4th so special if juneteenth

was the real emancipation.

like how can one be free and

still have a trapped mental.

like how our culture can be jacked and flipped,

renamed with style tips and

be considered a new trend.

they ask why it matters and they don’t

realize it’s because they’re colonizers.

or maybe it’s because

we’re still not recognizable to freedom,

like our melanin conflicts with

society’s reasons for why it’s okay to kill

an unarmed black man even if he’s running away.

his back was turned.

his hands were up.

his back was turned.

his hands were up.

has it ever occurred

to you that he’s scared?

that as soon as he gets pulled over

there’s a target on his head.

that as soon as you’re a 16-year-old black male

the first thing you do is not get your license —

but you write your will.

for the rest of your life

you fight for your life

the racism and the generalized stereotypes

that you are black, the absence of light.

nothing you do will ever be right.

you are dangerous, with nappy hair

your face looks funny because your features are full,

but just know...

only fools judge true essence.

Written by: Dakotah Aiyanna

Dakotah Aiyanna is a Charlotte-based writer, artist and self-love advocate. Inspired by the world and people around her, her main focus is to spread a black narrative in a way that everyone can understand. Her most recent project entitled: Black Tea + Honey is a collective of poetry using black tea as a concept to recognize the bitterness about being black in America and then honey as the soothing side of things, and the beauty life has to offer like love.