"Fetish" Poem by Niamey Thomas
Lyrics
“I don’t want to be your fetish.
Not before, not now, not ever.
I am not the girl of your dreams. You have a misplaced idea of who I am and who I am becoming. I am not the standard to which you compare yourself to, honey you’re following the wrong people if you do.
My Black girl magic + Latin spice is not for you to play with, fantasize over, or try to duplicate. Baby I’m too hot for you. Reimagine the world that you’re living in, I am not to be replicated.
There was once a young Latina woman who asked me, “what are you” I winced as I corrected her, “my ethnicity is Black and Mexican” she looked me dead in my eyes with a smile on her face and said, that she hopes to have children who look like me. She knew no better so I set her straight. I asked her what if she doesn’t look like me? And was she ready to take on all that will bring. The cries when kids make fun of her hair. The identity issues because she’s not enough, because she’s become a commodity, an “idol”. Are you willing to rally with her when her Black life is at risk, or will you crumble and tell her she’s not Black.
No you cannot tell me you want to have babies that look like me... yo that’s weird.
No you cannot fantasize what it’s like to have babies with me... yo that’s weird.
I am not here to fit into your idea of me. The box you’ve placed me in.
No you cannot touch my hair.
No you cannot ask me What I am.
No you cannot tell me what my ethnicities are because of what I may look like.
No you cannot hit on me because you say I’m mixed, light skin, yellow, or red bone.
No you cannot call me your one Black friend.
No you cannot question my being.
I don’t want to be your fetish.
I will never be your fetish.
I am not your fetish.
Not before, not now, not ever.”