by Sufjan Simone

Created on: September 27, 2007

PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE TAG TEAM

There's a band called Live that came out with a song - early in their career - "The Beauty of Gray" and without the music it might sound rather empty, but here are the lyrics:

THE BEAUTY OF GRAY
by Live

if i told you he was your brother
we could reminisce
then you would go about your day
if i said you ought to give him
some of your water

you'd shake your canteen and walk away

the perception that divides you from him
is a lie
for some reason you never asked why
this is not a black and white world
you can't afford to believe in your side

this is not a black and white world
to be alive
i say that the colors must swirl
and i believe
that maybe today
we will all get to appreciate

the beauty of gray

if i told you that she was your mother
we could analyze the situation and be gone
if i said you ought to give her
some of your water
your eyes would light up like the dawn

the perception that divides you from her
is a lie
for some reason you never asked why
this is not a black and white world
you can't afford to believe in your side

this is not a black and white world
to be alive
i say the colors must swirl
and i believe
that maybe today
we will all get to appreciate

the beauty of gray

look into your eyes
no daylight
new day now
-o-

My wife, if I ever learned anything from her, made me see the world in a new way. Her interests in anthropology - or at least the anthropology that they got taught here at the University of Cape Town in the early 1990s - allowed me to see the gray that this song echoes.

Beginning with the colours of each person, if you were to line up everyone in the world, you could see that the difference gets blurred from the very pale skinned to the darkest skinned. Some will always be in between a lighter skin and a darker skin. There isn't a clear cut division. There will always be gradations. The gray area.

That is until someone starts slapping labels on each and every person, or group of people. You are white. I am black. He is this. She is that. A human tendency, this labeling, to keep some kind of order. Convenient until it goes too far.

Apply the idea of this gradation among humans to all the differences, say to the various religious belief systems. All the crossovers and borrowings of tales that make up each holy book will become evident, or at least may be glimmered, even in the way of expressing the beliefs. There are always commonalities along with the slight differences as you move geographically throughout history.

Now move on to the different views of

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>