Unsilenced Brown Girl

Unsilenced

In these hallways of judgment

I stand alone

A universe contained within my skin

Watching their eyes slide past me

As if I were transparent

Every classroom became a battlefield

My presence - a disruption

To their carefully curated comfort

My blackness - a threat they couldn't name

But could certainly feel

They whispered

They stared

They excluded

Thinking silence would break me

But silence only sharpened my edges

Made my resolve harder

Turned my pain into precision

My hurt into hunger

Each racist comment

Each "accidental" slight

Each moment designed to make me feel small

Became fuel for my fire

I studied harder

Spoke louder

Achieved more

Not to prove them right

But to prove them wrong

My intelligence was my weapon

My excellence, my revenge

My success - a mirror reflecting

Everything they feared

When they expected me to fail

I rose

When they hoped I'd disappear

I expanded

When they tried to limit me

I became limitless

My blackness is not a weakness

It is my superpower

My resilience, my crown

My story - unbroken, unbound

I graduated

Not just with grades

But with dignity

With strength

With a future they couldn't imagine

I am here

I matter

I triumph