Beauty Beyond Colour

At Social Education Foundation we are all about diversity across the spectrum from race to gender and from sexuality to disability.

What makes human beings so special is our unique and vast array of differences - so why is there so much hostility and conflict based on difference?

I wanted to share with you some words of wisdom from one of our favourite artists - Prince EA. Such a kindred spirit, this guy so totally gets it and is reading from the same paragraph of the same page as we are:

Here are a few exerts from his superb piece 'I am not Black and you are not White':

"See, from birth the world force feeds us these.... labels And eventually we all swallow them We digest and accept the labels, never ever doubting them But there's one problem: Labels are not you and labels are not me Labels are just ...labels But who we truly are is not... skin... deep"

"No.... I'm not here to lecture I just want to ask one question Who would you be if the world never gave you a label? Never gave you a box to check Would you be White? Black? Mexican? Asian? Native American? Middle Eastern? Indian? No. We would be one; we would be together No longer living in the error Of calling human beings Black people or White people These labels that will forever blind us from seeing a person for who they are But instead seeing them through the judgmental, prejudicial, artificial filters of who we THINK they are And when you let an artificial label define yourself Then, my friend, you have chosen smallness over greatness and minimized your.... self"

"every war has started over labels It's always us... versus them So the answer to war, racism, sexism, and every other -ism Is so simple that every politician has missed it It’s the labels... We must rip them off Isn't it funny how no baby is born racist Yet, every baby cries when they hear the cries of another No matter the gender, culture or color Proving that deep down, we were meant to connect and care for each other"

"Please listen, labels only distort our vision Which is why half of those watching this will dismiss it Or feel resistance and conflicted But, just remember... So did the cater-pillar Before it broke through its shell and became the magnificent butterfly Well, these labels are our shells and we must do the same thing So we can finally spread our wings Human beings were not meant to be slapped with labels like groceries at supermarkets DNA cannot be regulated by the FDA We were meant to be free And only until you remove them all And stop living and thinking so small Will we be free to see ourselves and each other for who we....TRULY.... are"