I’ve been thinking about being a Black woman in today’s society.

I don’t know what it means to be a Black woman in today’s society.

I don’t know what it means to be a white woman

An Asian woman

An Indigenous woman

A Latino woman

A Mexican woman

A Filipino woman

So why must you call me a woman of color

Why not acknowledge my Blackness for what it stands for

It’s a culture that if you’re not in my skin

You will never know what it feels like

Respect my culture

Don’t lump me with every one else

And don’t disregard the richness of who they are by not acknowledging their heritage

I’m so sorry that you want us to have this alliance

But what is an alliance if it doesn’t truly acknowledge who I am

And what my ancestors fought for the rights for me to have

The right to know longer be called a slave

Colored

Negro

Nigger

Nigga

Look at my color and know from this point on that I am 200% Black

Black from the inside out

From the outside in

This woman in front of you is Black

So don’t transpose Colored

To person of color

Because by saying person of color

You instantly tell me that you don’t see me

And you don’t see the Asian, Indigenous, Latino, Mexican, and Filipino women’s cultures.

Respect us as a group and if we must come together as a group then call us Cultural Women.

Hold up…HELL ASK US WHAT WE WANT TO BE CALLED

But I refuse to allow you to continue to dictate what I will be called or how I shall refer to myself. I AM A BLACK WOMAN. I prefer and demand you call me BLACK Woman.

No longer shall I be referred to as African American, Negro, Colored, or Nigga.

I am Black

I am a woman

and I am Proud.


Sharon Nyree Williams is our Poet in Residence for February.

Previously: "I’m No Piece of Brittle", and "My Brothers".