wage gap

wage gap

for Kira Johnson

Black women are 243% more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications in comparison to the white woman

243% more likely 

to die from wanting to bore happiness despite this world of tactical terrorism tediously set up to

tear down our Minds

our Bodies

our Being

how do you tell an expecting Black mother her chances of survival are 243% less 

than her white counterpart

i remember sitting in an overly air-conditioned undergraduate classroom with my face scrunched

there is a social hierarchy that exists

examining the overlap between gender and race

that ranks white men and women alongside Black men and women

it goes as follows

white man 

white woman 

Black man 

Black woman

face scrunched

so what i’m understanding is 

no matter what 

i will always be the leftovers of society 

the faces in the room diverge from my own

the privilege is distributed 

the similar faces 

fallen

243% more likely 

i’ve seen many similar scrunched faces when i state feminism doesn’t exist

its white agenda is the face of 

feminism  

the simple existence of the term 

intersectional feminism defeats the purpose of all women 

for all women 

i am pro-Black women

i am solely pro-Black women because we are the bottom of the chain 

i am we do not deserve 243%

not the 

we need to be paid equal with white men

because let’s be real

we aren’t even paid equal to the white woman

but less than by 243%. 

Jess is a Senior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges