The Hyphen

You see The hyphen between
African and American?
Its used to connect the two
But it connects them
On so many levels.
The hyphen is a line that
They use subliminally
To separate the Africans from
The “true Americans".
The hyphen is the line that shows the Africans were taken from their land to this forsaken place we call home,
That is America.
The hyphen that is between African American is just a hyphen
in the eyes of the black
but in the eyes of the white,
the hyphen is no longer there,
but that line is transformed
into a longer line that
strikethroughs the word American because no one is willing
to see that we built this place.
We’re living like commoners
While they overlook the city
Looking down upon us
Through stain glassed Windows.
Windows stained with ignorance
And animosity.
Blind to see without the
Physical strength of
The black man,
They would not be sitting
On the throne
They sit so comfortably in.
Without the attributes of a hardworker
That God instilled in us as a people,
This place would not be.
Because we were released from
The reins of the white man
Without anyway to assimilate
We were forcibly placed on lower levels.
Each gun shot fired by a black man,
Think about each whip cracked on
A slave’s back.
Or how many celebrations
Were there in the event
Of having a rope wrapped
Around a black person’s neck.
For each bag of drugs being sold
By a black man, think about
How much money that was
Given for slaving in the fields.
When you see
“African- American"
Think about the hyphen
And what does it connect,
And think about the
True meaning surrounding it.

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