World of Color

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 23:49 -- gl3165

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What if the world was actually black and white?

Would our minds conceptualize color or rationalize hues?

Would we be forced to see the grim reality of the world in which we live?

 

If the world was indeed black and white,

Then my teacher’s question “what does it means to be white”

in a class mostly full of colored kids

would be the ultimate question.

Actually, it would be the most fitting question to ask.

 

Unfortunately, our world isn’t two dimensional,

– it isn’t black, white or

 in between like that frequently hated “gray” area when it comes to solving problems.

So, when my teacher asked me “what it means to be white,”

Here’s what I replied:

 

“If you ask me what does it means to be white,

I don’t know, I have no right –

to say that I know what it means to be a color.

To be orange, yellow, black or something other

than myself.

 

Why must I be judged by the definition of a race

When there is so much more about me that needs to be embraced.

Why must I be asked what it means to be “this” or what it means to be “that?”

When “this” and “that” has nothing to do with how I act.

 

No word or label defines me, except what I stand for,

A willingness to achieve greater and to do so much more.

To help this world to create and make people truly see

Not to be limited by a color’s notion of how I’m supposed to be.

 

No color categorizes or encloses me in any way,

Have limitations on who I can be or what I can become every day.

This small-minded label that can only hold me down,

I have altered and changed its perception and turned it around.

 

So, if you ask me again what it means to be white?

I don’t know what it means to be a color.

But if you ask me what it means to be me;

I’ll tell you no color or word defines me but to simply be the best that I can be.”

 

(Pause)

If given one chance, only, to change the world around me,

I’d change the perception of it

– Of race in society.

Because the concept of what it means to live in a world full of color

Yet having the importance of the colors of our skin labeled to our foreheads

Is something that is just sickening!

It isn’t fair to assume that as a black, or white, world in which we don’t live in, could ever be successful.

Because it isn’t fair to think that our essence as humans should be defined by the color of our skin.

I’d change the lens in which we see the world.

 

We live in a world filled with color,

So why not see each other as we are?

Full of color and vibrant.

Not black, or white, or yellow or any other color,

Just people.

I’d change the way we see each other and no longer feel blinded by the color of our skin. 

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