Thursday, March 21, 2013

I See Your Epidermis

The skin is the largest organ of the body, the epidermis. It keeps water in, pathogens out and helps regulate temperature. Do you have any idea how ill you would be without your skin? Every germ, every disease and pathogen would have immediate access without it, you would be a bleeding mess. It seems however, that somehow the sight of this amazing organ, which we can not do without, has hemorrhaged our souls, a social bubonic plague, that has darkened our eyes with gangrene and our minds with an acral necrosis.

Please. What does "white" mean???? What does "black" mean? What does it explain?  What people look like? Not even close. It is perhaps the most shallow, empty description of a person in existence. The "white" person. The "black" person. We still know absolutely nothing of any value whatsoever. The inference in itself begets utter ignorance. Are we simply the pigmentation of our epidermis? Are you a "strong white" person? Are you a "strong black" person? Seriously if you feel it necessary to insert the pigment of your epidermis into the equation than you have forfeited the word "strong" for the words, "shallow", "ignorant" and "deceived".   

If everyone's skin were uniformly translucent, would it cure the cancer of bigotry and hatred that ails our world? Indeed not. The haters would seek another vain avenue by which to judge a person before a word comes out of their mouths or their actions can speak for them. The hate mongers spread their disease like a whore, with words dripping of honey caressing the egos of their gullible, self-seeking victims, telling them how special they are and how they are better than all the rest, all the while infecting them with diseases. Ignorance is their power.

Have you ever seen a person who has been skinned alive?



Doesn't really matter what the pigmentation of their epidermis was does it? Why can we see the beauty of contrast on the trees in autumn and a rainbow in the sky but not on the faces of our fellow human beings? How can we value the pigment of a man's skin, over the very existence of the blessed organ that holds him together? Must we all be skinned alive before we can see?

How can we, in this day, allow racism and bigotry to dictate how we identify ourselves and others? How do we concede to such shallow ignorance that divides the whole world with the emptiest of all quantification? How can we fathom the very idea that minds so devoid of depth and substance are deserving of any power?
How can anyone who calls himself an AMERICAN, or who dare call themselves JOURNALISTS, nullify and disregard the precious truths of human rights and civil liberties with such blatant ignorance? In a time when the world is in desperate need of the light of truth, all they cast are shadows and darkness. 

Is it so hard even now to understand, after so many have sacrificed, that we are stronger when we are all "human beings" unified by the blood of those who lived and died to unify us. Will we continue to dishonor their sacrifice and buy into the lies. Check this box, check that box. In this human experience, is it not enough to say; we lived and died human beings, just and fair in all our dealings, with unprejudiced compassion, kindness, and honor, and an undiminished comprehension of what skin is for.