Yes, I am black, but I prefer to be called African American. But aside from the harsh word "Black" has developed into, I am also white, and Hispanic and so many more things under the sun. But what am I to others? Am I just a "light skin girl"? Am I just just so privileged in the eyes of everyone that I just might as well just cross black off of my list? Absolutely not, because in the eyes of the law, that is the first race card they'll pull. "Just a light skin black girl", a mutt... I can't even be just myself, I have to be labeled, just like my peers. when I asked several young black men and women the same question, the answers varied greatly.

"As a black man or woman in today's society, what are some things you are simply tired of hearing over and over?"

I asked Twitter, Instagram, and even peers on the Groupme app. Now this first one is one many of my social media followers have experienced being asked first hand.

1. "You talk too white."

Now this is where it just has to stop... How does one talk "too white"? Since when has intellectual level EVER correlated with a single race?

2. "You're pretty for a black girl."

This is the farthest thing from a compliment. I don't want to be called pretty if it is followed with "for a black girl". The eighteen years that I have lived I have seen so many beautiful elegant successful African American women, and all you have to say is "for a black girl". It's simply disgusting, if this is a comment you have in your little bag of "compliments", I don't want it.

3. "You're settling for less than your worth by attending an HBCU."

Really? Because after going to numerous predominately white school, I am more than positive that an HBCU is absolutely where I belong. I am SICK and tired of constantly being that one "smart black kid" in classes. I'm sick of looking around in AP and honors classes and seeing others judge all of the black kids for challenging themselves. As African Americans, we are constantly looked down and looked as less of a person, when in reality it's the opposite. All of my friends that are also attending Hampton with me are some of the most bright, personable, and aware of their intelligence.

4. "Well, black people kill black people every day, why are you upset over a cop killing a man who resisted?"

Often times, through social media, as my fellow African Americans are expressing their sorrow for those whom have been brutally murdered by corrupt police officers, they have been targeted as well. Not physically, but through the Internet many people have tried to use this means of "justification". Most of the times, these men that have been killed were pulled over for crimes that have been so minor, thinking that they would carry on with their life after getting a minor ticket, but they have thought wrong. These men were brutally killed, murdered in cold blood. In one video, a wife recorded the cop shoot her husband numerous times in the arm, and watched him bleed to death while she and their daughter were completely helpless and unable to take action to help him.

5. I'm tired of constantly seeing "All Lives Matter" on every single social media, because if this is the trend you are following, black lives are included in this. We need and desperately want to matter to all other races aside from our own.

All the while, most teenagers look up to the wrong type of celebrities. I see people following Kylie Jenner, and the other Kardashians, and it's sad. Most of this whole family is in relations with African American men and want nothing to do with the changes we need to become a powerful, peaceful, accepted race. Looking up to other races that get surgery, and wear plenty of makeup to accentuate things that as African Americans, we already have.

Constantly being compared to white culture hurts. Most of the statements above either end with "For a black girl" or "Too white", why as humans are we constantly comparing one race to others? What does a typical black girl look like? What is considered too white? I'm simply tired of hearing that white people that kill have a mental illness while blacks whom kill are automatically categorized as "natural born killers" or "ghetto", it just does not justify the fact that both have committed a crime. I'm tired of it all, honestly. I don't act black, I AM BLACK.

The stereotypes associated with black lives are so irrelevant because the bright individuals in my age group are those that are going to change the world. I know people that want to be doctors, psychiatrists, athletes, and other highly desired jobs. Now ask yourself "How am I contributing? Am I someone that asks these very questions to African Americans? Or am I a young African American just trying to show this corrupted world that I am more than just a "black person"?