Poem #8 : Instructions on how to be a Black woman in the 21st Century


  1.  Wear your hair natural. 
  2. Relax your hair if you want to go far professionally. 
  3. Don't sleep with white men. 
  4. If you wake up with a Black revolutionary on top of you - don't call rape. 
  5. If a white man rapes you - it is not rape. 
  6. If you are raped as a child - tell someone. 
  7. If you are raped as a child- tell no one (the adult will say). 
  8. No one can ever protect you (Sandra Bland). 
  9. Don't speak loudly.
  10. Speak up, if you want to be heard. 
  11. Don't bring up incarcerated family members at cocktail parties and family gatherings. 
  12. Don't wear your hair too loud.
  13. Why don't you wear your hair out? 
  14. Don't externalize your power (unless it's to white, male, christian entities).
  15. Protect your children at all costs.
  16. Know that you cannot protect your child from the state. 
  17. Be a good mother - magically turn poverty into the most enriching experience your child will ever have. 
  18. Tell your partner, 'ain't nothin' going' on but the rent,' and/or sing a destiny's child song and make it your mantra.
  19. Listen to Nina  Simone. 
  20. Be sexually progressive. 
  21. Don't be loose. 
  22. Don't break any of these rules or they will break you. 

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