LaShawn Smith-Wright
You Can’t Tame This O-Pression
“The most disrespected woman in America, is the black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the black woman.”- Malcolm X
I use the loose thread in my weave
to sew my mouth shut
Feel my dignity crawl
up in my tracks and stay there
my mouth as straight as my bangs
Everyone judges me before I even open
Call me o-presser
For being 1B and woman in one pack
It ain’t real
The innocence in my scalp
be 100% human while the rest of me be nothing
I wonder how they’ll tame me this time
Maybe curl some obedience in my spine
Iron out my sass
Blow my clapback to the wind
They grip the edges when they see me
Know the pressing comb I got to face
to look like them
They ain’t seen bruises like mine
Aint seen my body a picture they use to paint
Dyed me so much I don’t remember my original color
They always want to use my color
Make me blonde and bleached and less human
But I stay the same unbreakable
Combs break in my naps
Yield to my cocoa roots
My hair be blue magic
that white girl stole
assimilated, made her own
Bonneted away with culture
Called for black afro picks
and made gentrification
I am a product of too much product
Be a bad perm from a salon I am not allowed in
I be ‘just for me’ made for them
Every kink they can they detangle
Moisturized ebony they squeeze into
My hair is bantu they knot having
Dreads they lock up
Poetic license for they justice
A version of conformity they stick in a fro
I be authentic
Made from cocoa butter and mama sweat
To lay just right
In a scalp that felt so much disrespect
it can only be black
My hair be decolorized black
Made in America
for white women who can’t even enunciate the naps
pronounce the curls
highlight the struggle
My hair be a movement
the melanin challenged can’t follow
Be a hustle they can’t braid through
It lay like african soil
Grow like poplar tree
Sway with the wind
Catch the shade just right
My hair be stubborn
Be protest
Be uncontrollable
Edge slick with olive oil
It
“bee mine”
“As I am”
“Au Naturale”
“A gift of dreams”
everyone wants for them but not me
My hair is my culture
It’s getting finessed too
assimilated
Made white girl’s own
Till nothing is left for me
I am being taken
Tamed
O-Pressed
LaShawn Smith-Wright is a college freshman originally from Detroit, MI. she loves spending time around other poets ready to develop their craft and share their story which isn’t an available experience at her college. Regardless of this she still loves poetry and writes daily. All in all I am someone who loves telling my story in everything I do.
