“The essence of being a human is precisely your humanness, any other difference is irrelevant.”
Humankind is made up of a wide variety of ethnical groups; we rub shoulders with different races and different sexes on a daily basis. Now, here comes the issue I want to highlight today. It is so unfortunate that it is the tendency of people to judge others very fast. We tend to easily fall into the so-called “US and THEM” syndrome.
To call it by its official name, we fall into a moral Manichaeism. I am good, that race or sex is bad, and so you foster this dualistic belief where you place yourself in a favourable position while the other party is seen as unfavourable. When we draw stark and very unreasonable differentiations between how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive those not falling within the boundaries of how we perceive the world to be, then we start to fragment ourselves. Think for instance how you – yes you – tend to label other people according to their physical make-up. My question to you, have you ever thought about the fact that NOT ONE OF US had a choice about what we are. Not you nor anybody else had a say about the parents who conceived you. You had no choice where (and when) you were brought up. You were brought into this world with skin colour and gender that was ascribed to you by our DNA, by way of your parents. The only thing you have power over is how you treat your body and how you mould your thinking.
I usually explain the essence of being human by drawing a stick figure with a head, arms, legs and body. I then reiterate that this is all that matters, anything else is secondary, anything else is of less importance. You will only truly realise this once you grasp the essence of humankind. If you start realizing this essence, that we are all human, that we all yearn to be loved, that we all experience pain, hunger and thirst, maybe just then will you learn to be more compassionate towards other human beings, irrespective of their physical constitution.
I hope that you will look at others with new eyes as of today.
In essence, I am human, just like you,
so even if you despise my sex or pigmentation,
I am still part of this global rainbow nation,
and if you cut me you'll see, I bleed too…
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