So Much More


Your eyes would bug out
In complete and utter disbelief
If I shared that I was first ostracized
By those who looked like me
In the sense when white people say,
"They all look the same."
But it's never revealed that
The aforementioned they
weren't looking for similarities
Around the campfires.
No, we didn't clasp hands
Singing Kumbaya and other negro songs
When the differences were 
Much more fun to poke and prod.
"No, we are not the same"
We repeat to one another
Until it becomes a mantra
That deepens and widens
The divide among our people.
"No, we are not the same"
Because first comes the skin
There's light, cocoa, red, brown
And the dark as night
"Hey, I can't see you" black
Then come the educated
And those hailed by the streets
Both looking down at the other
Because one looks like a traitor
Kissing the ass of our oppressors
While the other resembles our ancestors
Enslaved by society's perception of our color
And then comes the hair
We got the good hair 
You know the type that
A comb doesn't have to fight
and the nappy-headed hair
Attached to the sensitive scalp
Of a sensitive girl who 
Cried her way to the store
To buy the chemicals 
To straighten out 
The kinks in her DNA
Because kids dubbed her doo-doo braids
And made her feel like shit
When all she wanted
Was to feel as if she belonged.
"No, we are not the same"
Because we keep listing
All the intricacies and 
All the idiosyncrasies 
Until we stand alone
As individuals
Never really feeling at home
In a category society grouped us in.
Black; there's so much more to that.

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