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.