APPROPRIATION

by Judy Juanita

Sources: Khloé Kardashian claps back at criticism she holds daughter True, 3, ‘too much’, Khloe Kardashian Faces Backlash for Holding Baby True Dangerously: 'You're About to Break Her Neck!', The Kardashians' Legacy of Blackfishing and Appropriation, Kardashians and Cultural Appropriation | Penn State - Presidential Leadership Academy (PLA)

a kardashian butchers her face into

a kewpie doll with our lips

another apes us with silicone butt

mocking the slavemasters who auctioned us naked

inserting the middle finger to show our fertility

one nestles a brownbaby against that recast jaw

triggering envy hate monstrous anger

the reproach: you hold our brownbaby too much

she is defiant: we good

nah

you good

we not

Judy Juanita's poetry collection Manhattan my ass, you're in Oakland won the American Book Award 2021 from the Before Columbus Foundation. Her poem "Bling" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. Her semi-autobiographical novel Virgin Soul is about a young woman who joins the Black Panther Party in the 60s (Viking, 2013). Her collection of essays DeFacto Feminism: Essays Straight Outta Oakland [EquiDistance, 2016] examines race, gender, politics and spirituality, as experienced by a black activist and self-described "feminist foot soldier." Winner of the Tartt Fiction Prize at the University of West Alabama [UWA], her short story collection The High Price of Freeways will be published by Livingston Press [UWA] in July, 2022.