"Be prepared to burn."

February 24, 2016 9:57 AM

To Black Girls Everywhere by Linda Chavers
posted by Fizz (5 comments total)

It is an interesting sensation, to be given a window into something while simultaneously understanding that you see nothing of what is actually there.

Thanks for posting this.
posted by Mooski at 10:01 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am not black or female. But I do understand some sense of this as a visible minority, this idea of being 'othered'. It is a very powerful poem/statement.
posted by Fizz at 10:08 AM on February 24, 2016

You must go forward accepting and understanding that no one will ever do it as well as you do, and no one will ever tell you that you do it better than anybody else.

oof.

(this is beautiful).
posted by emjaybee at 10:29 AM on February 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

So powerful, I am stricken. I recognize bits of it from stories my wife tells. It has me in tears and possessed of a fierce desire to burn society to the ground.
posted by donnagirl at 10:37 AM on February 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

Donnagirl
dont burn society to the ground. Instead help it evolve. After all, the writer, a prof, years ago could not have that job despite her gifts. We change. alas, but only by small steps.
I served in the Am army when it was segregated (1947) and then, (1950) when it was integrated; and yet the nation itself had not been integrated till some 7 years later. Darwin taught us that evolution is a long long process.
posted by Postroad at 11:05 AM on February 24, 2016 [7 favorites]