There are no black Cinderellas.
Carolyn Hopkins
There are no black brothers
riding white horses
waiting to sweep us up in
moving motion.
There are no black Cinderellas.
There are no happy endings to our stories,
only the ones we create for ourselves.
There are no black princes
waiting to be fathers of
children we fathered by other men.
I'm here to tell you, Sisters,
There are no black Cinderellas.
Some of us have been waiting in the ghettos
and mansions and projects of the world,
dreaming that some cool, fine,
Benz-driving black Brother is going to
drive us away from our daily miseries.
But he isn't coming--this year,
next year, or any other year.
So we should awaken from that
black fantasy and see the
white nightmare for what it really is.
We have to become our own Cinderellas.
We have to redefine and recreate
Cinderellas who are proud that
they come from a string of strong
foremothers who made it through
without that comforting hand to hold.
Cinderellas who put food on the table
in spite of having no money
or anybody to turn to.
But still found a way to make
a dollar out of fifteen cents.
Wake up from that white fairytale, Sisters,
because Cinderella was never meant to be black.
We have been dreaming long enough
of dating Denzel Washington;
Yet we must feel that we are beautiful
and wonderful and magnificent
like the night time stars,
and someday we will own the sky,
but until that day comes,
we will continue to rub our own tired back,
dry our own incessant tears,
and hold our own hands in hard times.
And I have accepted and I have realized
my black prince is not coming.
and I have made peace with that.
Even when I though he had arrived,
he betrayed me instead of loving me.
He left me with child
instead of being a father.
He cursed me instead of praising me.
He deserted me instead of supporting me.
He gave excuses instead
of giving roses.
I got rejection and pain
instead of kisses and hugs.
I knew then my black prince was not coming.
And that's when I decided
that if it was to be,
then it would be up to me.
And I would make my life complete
and happy without the help of another.
And if he wanted to join me,
then he would be the other half of me
not the entire me.
Sisters, we are to never give
our lives over to anyone.
Our lives belong to us.
That's the way God created it to be,
and self empowerment is the
way to true happiness.
So until God decides to send us
that genuine Black Man who completes us,
and validates us and supports us
and loves us and cries with us
and dreams with us,
we are better off loving and
caressing and embracing ourselves
and becoming the bewitchingly beautiful
and strikingly strong black women
that God destined us to be.
Love yourself, Sisters!
