I See Color, I See You

Yeah, I said it.

I see color.

I see you with your rich, deep hues, blacker than the night, with blue undertones.

I see that melanin that courses through your veins, from generations past, ebony buffed to shine down undulating valleys and peaks of beauty.

I see you.

I see your flawless skin, carved from the Creator, in pure beauty, every possible hue and tone of brown and black, dancing in the light,

I see you.

I see the difference in you and I, my pink skin, burning easy, white. I see how we contrast, not only in the color of our skin, but the shape of our nose, the texture of our hair, bone structure, culture, our ethnicity..

I see you.

I see you in all your glorious beauty and strength. I see the intricate designs that grace your hair, weaving in ancestry, stories, and traditions.

I see your back bone, your head held high, that attitude of defiance in your stance that hit me with so many emotions that swamp me.

I see you.

I see your pain, the constant judgement, the berating depraved indifference of privilege.

I see and hear your voice when you create a hashtag and a slogan of Black Lives Matter, only to be pushed back with all lives matter or blue lives matter.

I see you.

I see the atrocious heavy price to be ordained with your beauty, your blackness, your culture. The nonstop chipping away from the time you were born, chipping, tearing, ripping, clawing, breaking, anger, hatred, fear, undermining, rejecting, spewing sewage, verbal death, mental suicide, physical murder.

I see you.

I cannot unsee you.

I cannot turn my head away.

I cannot un-hear your stories of brutality, fear, and hatred.

I cannot.

I will see you for your beauty, for your inner majesty of strength no matter what you face.

I see you.

I will always see you.