“Dry Erase Board: Ramblings of a Black educated female sex worker”

You call and text me because you are bored.

I pleasure you when you are bored.

You buy my photos when you are bored.

You buy my clips when you are bored.

You pay to see me in person when you are bored.

I spank, flag, humiliate you when you are bored.

When I was young, I read when I was bored.

I played volleyball when I was bored.

I was a cheerleader when I was bored.

I rode my bike when I was bored.

I cooked with my family when I was bored.

I excelled, became valedictorian, and got two degrees because I was bored.

I was taught to be as tough as a board.

When you call me the n-word, I have to be as tough as a board.

When you call me whitewashed because I loved school, I had to be as tough as a board.

When I was raised to not look suspicious around cops, I had to be as tough as a board.

When I was told I sound white, I had to be as tough as a board.

When you send me hate mail for being a black sex worker, I have to be as tough as a board.

When you call me chocolate, ebony, poc, black, african american, nubian princess, cocoa dessert, I have to be as tough as a board.

When my cousin doesn’t want to wear a Covid mask in a store because he doesn’t want to look suspicious, he has to be as tough as a board.

When I was told I would get pregnant before 18 and become a drug addict, I had to be as tough as a board.

When grandma told me stories of our family as slaves, she told me she was tough as a board.

When I was called to the office in high school and was told my headband that I was using to hide my alopecia was for gangsters and to take it off, I had to be as tough as a board.

When I was told to work ten times as hard as a white person, I had to be as tough as a board.

When I was told my opportunities were different, I had to be as tough as a board.

There is no way to get a clean slate for all of this; you can’t erase everything from a dry erase board.

New laws, open mindedness, acceptance, love, kindness, action will help clear that dry erase board.

Those moments of past racist acts, markings on a dry erase board.

Those moments of present racial acts, markings on a dry erase board.

Those moments of injustice, markings on a dry erase board.

You cannot erase murders, job discrimination, slavery, rape, police brutality, all the ignorant wrongs from our history.

We will never forget. We will continue to fight. We will always remember that there is no clean slate, only dry erase boards with markings of what has happened, is happening, and what is continuing to happen unless people stand up, laws change, and people listen.