Power Poetry — Inspired by Independence Day
‘Sit Down, Be Humble’: Black Women’s Default Position
A lifelong litany of demands and commands called out and quickly ignored
I want to be crystal clear — this is not a sneer or implication that the beautiful and brilliant, Pulitzer prize-winning Kendrick Lamar ever uttered these words to or for Black women. However, I’m using his lyrics to highlight that everyone in the world has gotten way too comfortable telling Black women:
Shut up/Sit down/Be humble/Be grateful/Don’t complain/Stop fighting/You care too much/ You look like you don’t care/Say something/Do something/ Fix it/Fix me/Fix my life/You think you’re smart/You expect too much/Everything doesn’t need a response/Stop looking at me like that/Stop being strong/Stop being smart/Stop being discerning/Stop pretending you have feelings/Stop calling me out/Stop holding me accountable/Stop expecting fair, equitable or humane treatment/Stop expecting and demanding respect/Stop being you!
Well, as a smart, funny, thick Black chick in her forties to quote Fannie Lou Hamer, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired” and I’ll add “of everyone thinking they can ‘handle me’” — by (trying to) put and keep me and other Black women in our place,
