The Colored Girl

Recently, I've read an article called "The Colored Girl" by Fannie Barrier Williams. It basically talked about what it meant to be a colored girl. I really enjoyed reading this article because, me being a African American female, it really touched home with me because majority of what i read out of this article is what I felt about a lot of things. My favorite part in this article, which was the last part of it stated "The way to exalt the colored girl is to place a higher premium on character than we do upon the quality of her occupation. A fine girl is the supreme thing. Let her be loved, admired, encouraged, and above all things heroically protected against the scorn and contempt of men, black as well as white". To me, this was a powerful ending because it's a true statement, regarding colored girls. Black men didn't really understand, protect and back-up their fellow sisters, daughters, and wives as the white men protected their women. Was this because black men didn't have much power? This can be true in some sense because at one point, blacks didn't have power at all, but it's false today because we're living in a world where the sky is the limit, and there is no effective excuse of not protecting, encouraging, understanding, and raising your young daughters to be somebody. How bad can it be to tell your mom, daughter, sister that they are beautiful? Blacks back then already had to deal with the whites calling them names and saying they're beasts, rather than beautiful creatures. They may have gotten a little relief if only the black men stood up and said "She is beautiful no matter what you say." This article is true. Colored girls do need encouragement, uplift, to be loved, admired, protected, etc because she's already fighting against all odds and dealing with the fact that she seems as if she is at the bottom because she is black AND a female. Reading this article really inspired me to accomplish my dreams to prove to myself that I'm not at the bottom, but rather on my own level, being an accomplished educated colored girl.