Gabriela Wallberg To Myself

Gabriela Wallberg

To Myself

and when you are at the brink of giving up having given everything to the world reaping nothing but more anger you have to remember to not believe the lies because you are just as smart and you are just as capable as the white students sitting next to you in university the truth is you have towork twice as hard for recognition and they will never understand what it feels like to be continually bite by the tiger’s tooth nor do they understand the weight of double consciousness in a country where black and brown bodies are still shackled by systems bigger than any of us can fully comprehend so when you are at that place bruised and beaten you have to get up and you have to keep studying because the color of your skin doesn’t just make things twice as hard–it also makes it twice as important that you finish because education isn’t just a degree

it’s a power that your white counterparts tried to deny your ancestors for years knowing that when we became educated social mobility was bound to follow that you and your brown skin would be a force to be reckoned with so you need continue because you are an early stage of a tsunami that will cause floods and upheaval that they are not ready for.