My Skin and Me

I see myself and I'm ecstatic to see the reflection.
I am who I was born to be.
Strong, beautiful, caring, determined and such,
Yet there are certain society standards that expect me to be otherwise.
Though I'm black certain things are associated with my black-necessity that I want to erase.
Does this make me a traitor to my race?
Of course not!
I will never deny my human persona, whether they are good or bad.
What about my ethnicity?
I say no but others might say yes.
I refuse to be a stereotype.
I refuse to be a statistic.
I refused to be anything but me.
Because I feel this way some will claim that I have the desire to be white.
I see no connection in wanting to be successful means wanting to be white.
For those who see a connection, already the seed has been planted.
Someone one day asked me if I liked rap?
Is this the same rap that glorifies violence or hate towards someone?
Is this the same rap that promotes the drug life to escape your problems or a way to make easy money by “getting’ ya hustle on”?
Is this the same rap that calls me the once “Ebony Queen” and “Nubian Princess” a bitch or hoe that need to “bend over and touch my toes” while men “skeet skeet” over me?
My answer was no and will remain that way until the three change.
That someone told me that, “I needed to embrace my heritage.”
Just because I'm black.
That gutter trash is in no way part of my heritage.
The men in my family treat and talk to women with respect as well as others.
My skin is just that.
It has history and it has stories.
And maybe just maybe a few scars,
But it doesn’t say anything about me.