When the Formers Define the Latters

When I was young

They told me I could be whatever I wanted to be

I was told that I was free

The only one who could hold me back was...

Me

I was told those who were in poverty deserved it

Those who were not had earned it

If you broke the law you earned second class status

You were a traitor to our trust

If you were a law abiding citizen you were given a pass

To look down on those who had a past


If you were a cop you were placed on a pedestal

Even if you did wrong you were right... Still

I was told it didn't matter what your pigment showed

Red, yellow, black, or white, your color was hollowed

Your character and actions are what mattered

Except the former defined the latter

It doesn't matter if you do good or not

Because when you're black, thug is your plot

When you're yellow, genius is your shot

When you're red, gambling is your lot

And when your white, the world is yours to blot

To blot out the dissenters

To blot out the protesters

To blot out the diversity

To blot out nonconformity

To choose what the world sees

The victor always writes the history

If you use a drug, you're not struggling with addiction, but are trampling the white system

Colorblindness doesn't mean what we thought, but means that the world is still black and white minus the grays

People thought being colorblind made everyone the same, but forgot even the colorblind see different shades

There are still dark and light people, but the reflection doesn't represent our inner steeple

The dark can house the light just as light the dark

The question is does colorblindness improve us or remove the beauty of color from our world

Have we imposed a prison of blacks, whites, and grays on the world to protect us from the beauties that allow for horrors

Are we so terrified of our capacity for evil that we remove the good and beautiful

Keep the cultures of the pigments across the world and let them separate or mingle as they please

Let the cultures differ and recognize their differences

Stop trying to make everyone the same and making everyone tame

Stop letting the formers define the latters and let the ladders lead to the formers

That is let us rise up the ladders and form the world with our mingled and distinct cultures

Let us embrace separate cultures as equally beautiful and love our pigment as well as each others

Why be the same when you can be different

Why be gray when you can be red, yellow, black, or white