The Crown

Black women are born with crowns.

But sometimes, it’s hard to see your royalty when you don’t know your lineage. When you can’t see the greatness you hold inside of you reflected back in images of people like you. People who came before you.

It’s hard to see that power, that beauty, when your world is filled with people who doubt the command of your crown. Who doubt the validity of its beauty. Who show you images of the people like you, the people who came before you, beaten, caged, and downtrodden.

It’s hard to see that power when people call your crown nappy, dirty. When people tell you to fix your crown, to flatten it down. To take away it’s luster.

Your crown does not need fixing. It needs adjustment for no one. It was made how it was made. Beautifully, meticulously, perfectly. It was meant to stand out. It was meant to shine. It was meant to mark you apart from all others because all others come from you.

So look around, really look. Find the light radiating from the beautiful gold, bronze, obsidian atop the heads of the people like you. Of the ones who came before you.

Take pride in your lineage because your lineage is proud of you.