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The blurred lines between childhood and adulthood
When the lines are blurred
How can we tell who we are anymore
How do we know when innocence begins and when it ends
Or if it ever really happened
At all
This was not everyone's experience
But it was black children's
For a black boy who had to be a man
Before he could be a child
Before it even began
He was criminalised
Before he could even walk
Before he could talk
Before he was even born
Racism a shadow
Who would forever haunt
Forever stalk
Forever watched
A fate he never asked for
A burden he would be forced to carry because of his skin colour
Racism a lifelong trauma
Blurring childhood and adulthood into one word
A word Stripped of innocence
For a black girl
Everyday for her
Was the burden of being labelled 'the angry black girl'
Her daily routine was trying to be invisible
Yet still being called ignorant
Constantly Sexualised
Her big brown eyes
Being seen as a magnet for older guys
She tries to hide
But they still tried
Even when she tells then she's a child
They say she may have a face that is innocent
But her body Is very much different
She had been called 'easy'
Something she learned before she learned about puberty
She was Stripped of innocence
When she learned silence
Was survival
Even if it meant she had to endure violence
She knew if she spoke
There was a chance she'd be murdered
Or Maybe for her what was worse
Was no one believing her
She knew it was because she was a black girl
She knew this because it happened to her mother
When she was younger
Her perpetrator
A police officer
Who knew because she was black that meant he had all the power
Because who would they believe
A black woman
Or a white man
It's obvious
In a world that is controlled by a system That was built off of oppression
In a world that favours white over black
A world that if you're white you have innocence as a basic human right
But when your black it is a privilege we lack
Copyright ©
Layla Riley-Hill
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