Silence

By: Kaliyah

I feel silenced when I’m the only black person in a class
because I feel out of place so it makes me hesitate to
raise my hand or ask questions and I just have to be so
proper and it’s horrible because I feel like I’m nothing or
like a small piece of chocolate that was dropped into a
cup of milk slowly dissolving becoming forced to be a
part of the white community feeling like if I don’t start
talking like them or presenting myself the way they do I
will be judged learning that the only thing in life achieved
without effort is failure feeling like maybe life isn’t about
finding yourself it’s about creating yourself because if we
are silent then the “proper narrative” won’t have
anything to feed on it’s like you eat or you starve and by
being silent we’re showing them that it’s their time to
starve because they have been eating for too long my
mama always told me eat or get ate and I’m hungry are
you?