Poem: Mirrors, reflections and representations

Mirrors, reflections and representations  

By Damini Awoyiga

Our melaninated, brown skin
Elevating defiantly despite the odds
Despite the attempts to block and segregate spaces
We thrive 
We survive in spaces that don't reflect us 
We continue to defy 
the flawed portrayal of our communities in society
We reject subliminal messages that say we don't belong 
Changing the course history by writing ourselves in 
We challenge all these narratives 
and yet we still feel uneasy
In spaces 
Where we are the only
Some have the privilege
Of not having to look around the room reflexively 
And knowing that there are less than two 
that looks like you
Images of black people on the covers of Magazines
Making eyes glitter like marbles 
When instead it should just be normal
A Standard Sight, Ordinary and Beautiful.
To acknowledge and think of privilege
Is to be aware and thoughtful 
Of what you take for granted and others can't 
We live in a country we like to call a mosaic.
Yet we are all fighting to remember 
the patterns and parts that indicate us
Truly at times, we feel unseen. 
It is like the spotlight shines bright 
but we still manage to be the shadows in between. 
We fight to break down archaic spaces  
where representation is not yet present 
Where public servants make decisions 
That doesn't reflect (all) the people they serve
For too long, our presence has been confined
Between these lines 
And yet beyond 
Our hidden footprints are left behind.
In different realms 
depicting our stories,
We run the risk of believing a single story,

Not only would they be untrue

but also incomplete

There must be attention to

the way inclusivity and diversity are thought through

So we are no longer just bodies filing spaces for

Community consultations

but rather factored into equations,

With introspections taken into consideration
The call for representation grows stronger each day,
We yearn to depict our stories,
For our narrations must reshape the world.
In uncharted waters, our presence is sown.
Our melaninated, brown skin
Elevating defiantly despite the odds
Despite the attempts to block and segregate spaces
We thrive 
We survive in spaces that don't reflect us 
We continue to defy 
the flawed portrayal of our communities in society
We reject subliminal messages that say we don't belong 
Changing the course history by writing ourselves in