This month, our VOX Investigates team began its semester-long dive into the controversial topic of race and its relation to teens in Atlanta.

We got to discuss and share issues surrounding race through a race dialogue, supported by a team of volunteer mentors and leaders from organizations committed to racial justice, including Perri Chandler, a facilitator with the Anti-Defamation League , and Aparna Bhattacharyya, director of Raksha.

After a heavy day of team-building, discussion and education, our team took some time to reflect on what we learned and what it meant to each of us personally. Share your views and stories by emailing media@voxatl.org, and follow along on our social media. #voxinvestigates. -Akhil Vaidya/VOX Investigates teen editor 

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Mirror, mirror on the wall

Who is the ugliest of them all?

Mirror, mirror, if only you could understand

I don’t want a black man

Or a little black child, with knots of hair upon her head.

I know the trouble of black hair that even

Braids cannot contain.

I have fallen in love with the sting of white soap

as it straightens in a permanent wave.

Mirror must be truth.

Truth is what they say.

God, blue-eyed Jesus, why did you make me this

way?

What to say

to a little black child

When she asks

why has God made me this way?

What to say

to a little black child

when she says,

Momma,

Why am I the only one?

Maya, 16, is a senior at W.D. Mohammed High School.