"I cant imagine wut its like to be black".

Well I do. As a black woman living on Guam my whole life I still experienced the abuse of racial discrimination. It took me a while to gain black power due to the racial trauma I edured. THREAD:

Being black means having ppl point out ur hair for being "messy" & making u wish you had straight hair. Its bout ur elementary school peers being unracially aware, they say the most racist things for u to come home & tell ur dad u wish u were white so ur ppl at school will like u

It's about having your black father sit you down every now and then to talk about what racism is & trying to remind your that ur beautiful just the way u are. It sometimes means not understanding cus u already grew some self hate for being black at a young age

Its sometimes growing so much self hate that you fall into an identity crisis. It means looking in the mirror and not understanding tht ur beautiful like everyone else. You start to think ur race isnt normal.

It's about experiencing mircro aggressions so much, you numb urself to it. Sometimes checking "other" when a form asks you what ethnicity are you. It's thinking white=beautiful & black=ugly. Therefore u were ugly.

It's about the Disney Land security guard at my first time in the U.S. racially profiling me and being aggressive w me, saying my self stick is a weapon and I could potentially be a threat, wanting to follow me back to the hotel alone so he witnesses me put the "weapon" away.

It's about thinking ur hair has to be straight for special occasions. It's about ppl always telling u ur always bringing in the race card when u tell them if something offends you. Its about peers making racist jokes and u dont know where to draw the line.

I... I can go on about my experiences of being black. But you know what being black also means? It means throughout all the emotional distress and racial trauma, you find black power in it all.

I only fully accepted myself at the age of 20 and I am almost 24. I just started my journey as finding my identity. Now when ppl, ask me what I like about myself, the first thing I say is, "I love that I'm black woman."

Dont think just cus Guam has diversity of POC doesnt mean it was a shield for me to experience racism. It's EVERYWHERE. I grew up with it.

When you raise ur voices & awareness about black lives it makes a difference. Imagine if ppl were just as passionate wen I was growing up.