Woman in God’s Picture

My face is shadowed by tears and shame
When I see the way you are treated.
I stare at my brothers in disbelief
As they take unauthorized authority.

I am given a bad name because of them
And you suffer at the hands of them.
But how do I combat this negativity
That is birthed from wrong activity?

Why would I address you, my Black Woman
By some derogatory term that invokes disrespect and isolates?

Why would I tear down your essence
The life of your very presence
And treat you like some cheap object
Even if you wanted to be treated that way?

Do I not realize that you are someone’s daughter?
Someone’s sister – someone’s mother?
Do I not realize that you are someone’s cousin?
Someone’s aunt or someone’s niece?

I would give my life for my mother.
And honestly I’d kill to protect my sister.
Why won’t I do the same for you?
What gives me the right to choose?
To make you submit unwillingly
When I dare not submit to you?

Why would I say: “you deserve to be hit!”
Treason!!!
That’s like saying I deserve to be beaten by the police for no reason.
Or lose my job because I’m not the “right” skin color –
Stereotyped as inferior based on some curve of a Bell.
Always looked at as a criminal as people check for their wallets
Forever having to cross to the other side of the street
When white people approach…
Or should I be stripped from my family’s grasp and sold down the river?
Or be stomped in the head by a Negro hater?
Should I be looked upon as an animal – and told I’m not a human being?

So why do I take false liberty to abuse you
When I know I dare not enjoy the false liberties taken against mine own person?

No matter how much rage may live inside of me
It does not give me a right to take you and strike.
I need help. They need help. All men who commit this sin need help.

If I beat you, then leave!
Get away until I can stabilize!
Stay away until I get some help!
And if I can’t then don’t come back.
You deserve better.
And if I can’t give it to you – that’s my fault.

But if I genuinely want to change and you are willing…
My own insecurities can we deal with together?
How could I dream of not proving your worth
When God made both you and I in His image?

From the book: Transition: Breaking Through the Barriers, Pg. 198
Written by Allen Paul Weaver III
Published by: IUniverse June 2006