Why You Hate Me

The prejudice within my own race

Never in my life

Would I have ever thought

The things I knew to be so right

Could be so wrong in your eyesight

 

Chastised by my own kind for what you thought to be blatant lies

And my true ethnicity of which you felt I disguised

When you first saw my black face under the light

But then heard me speak

And declared me white

Stating I was no longer permitted a dog in this fight

Who I am, you believed to be some form of malpractice

But the fact is

My speech does not qualify my blackness

I am educated, intelligent, articulate, prophetic

And unapologetic

To you

Or any other man of this color

Sister or brother

Who based upon what’s “trending”

Can feel obliged to play God and decide what I’m intending

 

Then you see fit to call me Tom

And proclaim my ways to be condescending

What I have to offer should be seen so plainly

And viewed as substantial making you proud to claim me

You wonder how someone who comes from where I’ve come

Can identify with your struggle? In my attirement?

You know neither me nor what I’ve had to push through

In a place where there weren’t many like me or you

And I would have never thought to deny you

 

In fact

I embraced you with pride and admiration

Even more so for your environment

And all that you’ve had to endure

And now

As if being in this skin isn’t hard enough

Now even you hate me

 

Now it’s a must

That I justify myself to both them and us

And why I feel that I have earned the right

To sit on what I thought was my own bus

While now even you degrade me

 

And you wonder why they still laugh at us?

Think about why that sounds so crazy

Now look me in the eyes

And tell me you still hate me

Author's Note

As an African American man, the discrimination I frequently face comes from within my own race