This poem started out as a high school English assignment, born out of a last-minute rush to turn in homework I hadn't done the night before.
While I can't recall the theme of the assignment, I know my own inspiration was the racism and prejudice faced by Black people. I wanted to make a satirical/sarcastic commentary on the stereotypes placed on us, and highlight their absurdity.
Later on, during a competition during Black History Month for my history class, I expanded this poem to be somewhat less melancholy, and more hopeful. In an effort to connect with the poem even more as well as inspire myself, I made the bold decision to include my sexuality within the poem. That inclusion, in my opinion, made the poem less of an outsider's view on my community, and more of an examination from the inside. I also wanted to represent another community within my own that's often seen as a detached entity, rather than a subgroup.
Out of all of my poems, this is one of my absolute favorites and one of the few that deals with more universal issues.
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