Motivation

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalms 139:14

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Just today I heard someone say "she's acting black." This person was talking to an white girl that was being loud, rude, and uncivilized. My question is why does she have to be acting black? Can't you just say she was acting uncivilized? Is there a definition to acting black or acting white? When I was born I didn't come with the how to act black manual. Why do we label people as we do? Why do we as part of society let stereotypes be the driving force to explain or determine how someone is acting? Do you ever stop to think how you make a black person feel when you use the term "acting black?" When I hear acting black it makes me mad! I don't act "Black", yes I am African American, but you can't act a skin color! The term is an outrage we all act as how we want to act! Like I said before I am black, but I don't act black I act like myself, Tre'Dessa Coretta Smalls!! I challenge us a whole to stop using stereotypical terms such as "acting black", "acting white" or "acting Mexican" or of any other ethnicity. Remember you are the only one who can determine the actions you will take so why blame it on acting a skin color? Think about it!!

Narrative Poem

Who She Saw

(Narrative Poem)

Underneath her DARK skin

Lived a weeping girl within

She hated herself in and out

She lived with every single doubt 

When she was young she was taught to love her skin

But as she got older that love grew real thin

Her skin wasn’t pretty and bright

When she got older someone told her “her skin was dark as sin in daylight”

She did not take that insult alright

After that society made her label her skin color as her plight 

Her hair was coarse and nappy

Looking at herself she could never be happy

Plump and big were her lips

Wide and thick were her hips

The mirror had said her skin was too black 

It showed her everything she lacked

Flawless hair, light skin, and being another race

She didn’t like her body or face

She longed for a different skin color just to get a little taste

Wish I could tell you that this girl was set free

But I have to tell you this girl was me

Because of what people in society say

That was the message I felt I conveyed

In front of my family I just smiled

They didn’t know that I thought black was foul

I scrubbed roughly to try to get it off

But wait….. it was permanent

Yes it was an affirmative

I would always stay

I wonder why God made me this way

Every time I tried it never would come off I just would sigh then cough.

Because of what people would say

My heart turned into ice and it wouldn’t melt away

They picked on me everyday

And I just wanted to run away

I never again had wanted to see the light of day

I was scared to tell, it hurt to have to repeat the thing they would say

The scars on my arm came from the racial storm

Day after day more of them would form

I would start the cutting process again and again

Each time jabbing deeper in my unwanted dark skin

I kept it all inside

Buried it all just tried to hide

It was too much for me to keep

So I just continued to weep

I was like a flower withered and dry

Needing someone to sprinkle water on me before I died

In my head I knew slavery had ended back then

But I had become a victim of slavery because of what I had called my ugly skin

I felt like life was a living hell

All because of being black wasn’t perceived to well

Because of being black I wanted to die

And yes I did try

After talking to some they told me being black wasn’t a condition

It was my great position

They help me find my place in this world

And they stop the horrible wind that had whirled

They told me I was beautiful and I tried believed it

Until this day I still struggle to receive it

But I will no longer let anyone tell me my black isn’t beautiful

Because for that person I will have a mouth full

Society and those bullies 

Will no longer pull me

I have grown to love my skin fully

I cried because of the societal lies

But never again because like Dr. Maya Angelou said “Still I Rise.”

http://blacksnob.com/snob_blog/2011/5/27/dark-girls-documentary-takes-painful-look-at-colorism.html#.UTqtIRzvv3x

Go to this blog and read it!! It is close in relation to my topic!! Watch some of the videos and read it!!

You have to learn to love yourself!! Your black is beyond beautiful no matter what anyone says!!

This video shows what the stigmas given by society about African- American girls result in. This is really how many black women feel. Read my Exploratory Essay and then re-watch this video. I hope this will get you closer to understanding why my project is so essential.

Research Memo

Tre’Dessa Smalls

English 2

Ms. McKoy

28 February 2013

Black Girls through Your Eyes

Hypothesis:

Black girls they are beautiful just as any other girl, but I believe many of them don’t see their true beauty. Personally I went through a time where I had extremely low self esteem and wasn’t comfortable in my skin but I had to get to the root of the problem and see what was causing me to feel that way. In my survey I hope to gather information that would lead me to knowing if what factor plays the biggest role in black girls having love self esteem. I asked questions like “Have you ever picked on a black girl because of her skin tone?” and “True or False: Some African American girls are pretty?” and I pray that these questions bring forth the result I am looking for. I hope that these surveys will answer my topic question “What are the major factors that cause black girls to have low self esteem?”

Context:

My targeted audience was African American female of any age range. I choose this group because they all know how it feels to be an African American girl going through the struggles of growing up “different.” I discovered that many people do believe that African American girls tend to have a lower self esteem and those people also believe that society plays a vital role in them having that mind set. I used gender and race as my demographics to see how people feel about this topic within races and genders. My results are both reliable and valid because of my varied demographics. After I administrated my surveys I realized that I need more questions directed toward emotions. I feel as if I had more questions that were more that surrounded the topic of my personal struggle but asked in an unbiased way my results would have been of even more value. I know my questions are reliable because they are not biased in any way and I just don’t have one type of answer to each.  

Data Analysis:

Demographics:	Question One: Do you believe that African American girls have low self esteem?	Question Two: Some black girls are pretty?
Black Male:2	All the black males answered no to this question.	All the black males answered true to this question
Black Female:13	The response for this question was split half said yes and the other half said no.	Every single black female that took this survey said true to this question.
White Male:2	Both responders said yes	All of them answered true.
White Female:14	Many of the respondents said yes , but there was a few that answered no.	Every one of them except one person answer true. That one false that I got was the only false throughout all the responses to this question.
Asian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Asian Female:1	She answered yes.	She answered true.
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Hispanic Female:1	She answered no.	She answered true to this question.
Indian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A	N/A
Demographics	Question three: Do you label black girls as “ratchet” or “ghetto?”	Question four: How important is it for a girl to know how important she is?
Black Male:2	Yes-1 No-1 Sometimes-0	1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-1 8-0 9-0 10-1
Black Female:13	Yes-0 No-1 Sometimes-9	1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-1 10-12
White Male:2	Yes-2 No-0 Sometimes-0	1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-1 10-1
White Female:14	Yes-2 No-3 Sometimes-9	1-2 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 10-9
Asian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Asian Female:1	Yes-0 No-0 Sometimes-1	1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 10-1
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Hispanic Female:2	Yes-o No-2 Sometimes-0	1-0 2-1 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 10-0
Indian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A	N/A
Demographics	Question five: Do you believe that black girls get less respect than girls of other races?	Question six: Explain
Black Male:2	Yes-0 No-2	Left it blank.
Black Female:13	Yes-10 No-3	Most of the responses had to do with being wrongfully stereotyped and people not liking black people in general.
White Male:2	Yes-2 No-0	The respondents said because they got looked down on.
White Female:11	Yes-6 No-5	African American women are born with two strikes against them. They are African American and a woman. There are many different negative stereotypes of both of those. Society (especially in the south) already has an image of which people are based off of these stereotypes, and therefore African American women are treated with less respect than African American men or Caucasian women.
Asian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Asian Female:1	Yes-0 No-1	Left this section blank.
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Hispanic Female:1	Yes-1 No-0	Left this part blank.
Indian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A	N/A
Demographics	Question seven: Do you know what “Black Girls Rock” is?	Question eight: Explain it
Black Male:2	Both if the respondents knew what “Black Girls Rock” is.	Both guys didn’t respond to this question.
Black Female:13	All of the black females knew what “Black Girls Rock” is.	They all said something about “Black Girls Rock” being an empowerment program for black girls and they said they saw the show on BET.
White Male:2	Neither respondent knew what “Black Girls Rock” is.	They left this section blank.
White Female:11	More than half of the white females didn’t know what “Black Girls Rock” is. Only about two of them knew what it was.	One person said it was a program for black girls to feel better about themselves and most of the rest left it blank.
Asian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Asian Female:1	She did not know what “Black Girls Rock” is.	Left it blank
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Hispanic Female:2	One respondent knew what it was and the other person did not.	They both left it blank.
Indian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A	N/A
Demographics	Question nine: Check all that apply:	Question ten: have you ever picked on a black girl because of her skin tone?
Black Male:2	I have black friends- My black friends are girls- My black friends are boys- My black friends are both male and female- I make “black jokes” about my black friends-	Yes-1 No-1
Black Female:13	I have black friends- My black friends are girls- My black friends are boys- My black friends are both male and female- I make “black jokes” about my black friends-	Yes-7 No-3
White Male:2	I have black friends- My black friends are girls- My black friends are boys- My black friends are both male and female- I make “black jokes” about my black friends-	Yes-1 No-1
White Female:14	I have black friends- My black friends are girls- My black friends are boys- My black friends are both male and female- I make “black jokes” about my black friends-	Yes-2 No-12
Asian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Asian Female:1	I have black friends- My black friends are girls- My black friends are boys- My black friends are both male and female- I make “black jokes” about my black friends-	Yes-1 No-0
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Hispanic Female:2	All of the respondents had some form of black friends and she answered yes to making black jokes.	Yes-0 No-2
Indian Male: 0	N/A	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A	N/A
Demographics	Question eleven: What do you believe is the biggest problem/ concern of black girls?
Black Male:2	Family-0 Society-0 School-2 Self esteem-0
Black Female:13	Family-1 Society-7 School-1 Self esteem-4
White Male:2	Family-0 Society-0 School-0 Self esteem-2
White Female:12	Family-6 Society-4 School-1 Self esteem-2
Asian Male: 0	N/A
Asian Female:1	Family-1 Society-0 School-0 Self esteem-0
Hispanic Male: 0	N/A
Hispanic Female:2	Family-0 Society-2 School-0 Self esteem-0
Indian Male: 0	N/A
Indian Female: 0	N/A

When I was reviewing the responses I got on my survey I saw many trends in some of my answers. There were so many different societal views that were revealed through this process of the way people see black girls. I realized that many people do have the same views as me but the reason we feel that way are not the same. My topic question got answered through my survey and I got to see many perspectives of the answer.

The first question was related to self esteem in black girls and I realized that quite a few people believe that black girls do have low self esteems. 40% of my respondents answered yes to this question which was higher than I expected. The answers I got to this question made me think a little further about why people feel that why and what do they believe contribute to this problem. My next question related to the first question in a way. This question asked “true or false: Black girls are pretty?” 90% of the people who answered the question said true. I was astounded by the respondents’ answers because I thought society saw black girls as being less beautiful than other girls. Only three people answered false to this question and it really made me feel good about my peers, but question the relevancy of the goal of my project.

 Labeling was the topic of my next question and I saw a trend in how people answered. Out of my three answer choices, the option of sometimes was the most popular. Many people admitted to sometimes labeling black girls as “ghetto or ratchet” which wasn't a surprise.

My next two questions were questions of importance. Asking about importance leads to identifying the factors that make black girls have low self esteem.  I had asked how important do you think it is for a girl to know her worth. Most people answered 10 which was the highest number if importance on the survey question. These answers were extremely important to finding out do people think that having a good self esteem is imperative.

Do you believe black girls get less respect than girls of other races? Do you know what "Black Girls Rock" is? Do you make "black jokes" about your black friends? Have you ever picked on a black girl because of her skin tone? Those are some of the many questions that have helped drive this project. The responses have really helped me understand my project more. 63% of my survey takers said that black girls do in fact get less respect than girls of other races. Some explained it as “African American women are born with two strikes against them. They are African American and a woman. There are many different negative stereotypes of both of those. Society (especially in the south) already has an image of which people are based off of these stereotypes, and therefore African American women are treated with less respect than African American men or Caucasian women.” I felt that this meant that many people understand that black girls get treated less than.  Many people knew that “Black Girls Rock” is an empowerment Television show but many didn't know that it was more than that. “Black Girls Rock” is also a black youth empowerment program that teaches them many life lessons and how to love themselves. I saw that “black jokes” were a common theme, but this survey help me realize that is something I should tackle with my blog. The response that really choked me up was the one about skin tones. When I wrote that question I didn't believe that anyone would answer it honestly, but 26% of my people answer honestly and said yes.  

I think in my last question I really did get exactly what I wanted to know I was trying to find it. The trends show that society is a biggest concern in a black girl’s life which leads to messing up her self esteem. The results of my last question society and self esteem were the highest two answers. This question shows that people really do believe that society plays a huge role on the way black girls see themselves.

Conclusion:

I have gotten lots of valuable information from my surveys and it certainly has opened my eyes to how people view black girls. I have unveiled many other ways to expand upon my research. Also I believe that my surveys have let me see a common thread in all of my research and some things that some black girls need to work on. My surveys had way more than one meaning with the results that I obtained, but I definitely able to construct many more questions that are related to my topic.

Follow Up:

The response I got to my questions five and six will help me expand my project in another way. With question five I found out that many people believe that black girls get less respect than girls of other races, in question six they said that it’s because of stereotypes and outside appearance. Those responses really rattled me and have made me want to delve a little dipper into them. I found out that it’s a common thing to categorize all black girls as “ratchet” and “ghetto” even the girls they do not know. But, most of them don’t even know why the call them “ratchet” and “ghetto” and most of them just do it because of skin color disregarding personality. In the future I will research the stereotypes of black girls and how to diminish the long lasting effects they have on a black girl’s self esteem. My original question is “what are the major factors that cause black girls to have low self esteem?” and with answering this question it will get me closer to answering further inquiry.