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.