Why You Hate Me

Never in my life Would I have ever thought The things I knew to be so right Would 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 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 And 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 Copyright © 2013 by Daryl R. Gaines. All rights reserved