Human--- in Color

A long, long time ago, when I first began conscious-rapping, I feared one day running out of material. Then I realized... I'll never run out of material as long as people don't run out of stupid. Furthermore, if they keep displaying the same forms of stupidity, then my material is SUPPOSED to be repetitive.

Though this is a blog and not a rap, the same principle applies...

Today I was watching an episode of Mad TV (Pam Grier was guest-starring, so I had no choice). One particular skit was about the formation of a Negro Justice League. One of the members was an "Uncle Tom" of sorts who gets enlightened by Pam Grier's character, Revolution. After his enlightenment, he changes identities and dawns a black suit and what I thought were shades. The first thought that came to my mind was, "Man in Black?" like the Men in Black movies starring Will Smith. It turned out that the shades were actually glasses, and he was to be a mock Malcolm X or Lewis Farrakhan.

But, the idea was already put into my head: Man in Black. And to me, that held much more significance than what was intended. Break that down... Man-in-Black. See, that's significant because a lot of us STILL don't realize something of vital importance: our identities lie within, not without. Our race/color is not who we are. True, it may determine the challenges we face and/or the privileges we enjoy in life. But when we face God, our colors will not carry any weight with Him; God looks at the inward man, and THAT is what makes us who we are.

SO, if you are a White man, you are not that, but a man in White. And yes, if you are a Black man, you are not that, but a man in Black. Some of us are moreso our race than we are ourselves: that's why some of us won't listen to certain forms of music, thinking it's not protocol for Blacks to like rock or Whites to like soul. Utter stupidity; when you know how to be human, you recognize that all forms of music stretch forth from the same human element. And when you stop lying to yourself, you admit that you feel connected to all these forms of expression even if you don't always cater to them all.

Man lives on the inside of his flesh, he is not the flesh itself; when we die, the soul and spirit of man leave the flesh behind. So how can we merely be the color of our skin or our genetic heritage?

And here's another thing: part of the reason we struggle so much with racism is because, even in 2007, we STILL don't believe that we're all the same. Though science has proven we're biologically no different--- though every myth has been disproven, though we've shown to be a common species every day that we've fought, cried, laughed, raised families, worked, and prayed together--- some people STILL maintain that, because we're different colors, we're different beings. First, Blacks were 3/5ths of a man to Whites; then Whites were "White-devils" to Blacks...

See how much we're alike? We're both STUPID. Either just as stupid as the other.

The Black superhero on Mad TV turned out to be a member of the Nation. But the fact is, we really need a Man-in-Black superhero. And this should be his superpower: the power to remove himself from his Black, physical body and extract the human spirit from all people in his near vicinity to let all see that all are the same.

One day we're gonna realize how true it is that it's not the suit, but what's inside the suit that makes the man. And when we fill out applications, we'll make like the ad campaign, and put "human" for our race.

Dez Only 1