Talisha Smith

Business 311-900

Professor Brielle Buckler

February, 06,2021

 

MY COLOR

My Color so powerful and beautiful with tints of honey and gold

Scares people who don’t look like me

Who are afraid to understand that I am just like them?

My hair which can be course, curly or thick makes other cultures crazy and sick

They hold their purses when I come around and when I talk to them, they won’t even look at me

They stare at the ground, they whisper about the way that I strut with all these curves and a bigger butt

They say that I’m dumb and I can not comprehend even though I can read and write just like them

They say that I’m uworthless and can’t hold a job

Even though I have raised their ancestor’s children with love and sincerity

I have cleaned their homes and cooked them meals and sometimes been a body for a man to climb on against my will

But I guess when they don’t pay you it isn’t a job

I go into job interviews where they question my strengths as a woman

They ask if I’m married, if I’m a mother

They tell me am I willing to make a dollar short and a penny less.

My color so powerful and beautiful with tints of brown and caramel

They don’t understand what they can’t comprehend

For you are God sent

I choose to right a poem to express my feelings on equal rights legislation because I am a black woman living in America. Before woman had the right to work and be deemed equal as men Slavery existed. African Americans were treated like animals based off the color of their skin and even though times have gotten better racism still exists. In the movie On the Basis of Sex it follows Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work to make woman equal in the work field. In those times woman were only recognized as house wives and their jobs were to maintain the children and the house hold. Woman were only recognized because of their husbands and respected because of them. Even though a woman had the same degree as a man and had the same qualifications to do the job they were never hired.

Ruth went to court and won a case for a man who cared for his elderly mom, he got in trouble for tax fraud because he was doing what was considered a woman’s job. She fought for the laws to be changed for the better of the future and was successful. The change was beneficial, but it was not fair to all. Woman of color did not have the same rights. We weren’t taken serious and weren’t respected as a race. For instance three African American woman who were considered human computers due to their extraordinary gift of numbers did not get the recognition for their major roles in helping the united states beat Russia in the space race when they worked for NASA. Until the Movie Hidden Figures came out they were hardly ever mentioned in History Books.

Times have changed and times have gotten a bit better for woman of color but we aren’t where we want to be. We are still called derogatory names and still looked down upon. We are denied jobs more then we would like to admit even when we meet the qualifications and we are shown that black lives do not always matter.