Learning to Ponder

The Man in the Black Hood

Ignorance is looking at merely a man in a hood

Ignorance is inattentively darting your eyes around the man in front of you,

As to exhibit an ever-consuming feeling of reluctance for your presence.

Ignorance is the slight that you mutter under your breath,

Asking "what is even the point of this"?

As you aimlessly wander through more exhibits waiting for the hour to pass.

Ignorance is all these things and so much more,

It is the fault of the human condition; it limits your understanding of the beauty

That

Lies

Ahead.

Appreciation is more than the act of looking,

It is seeing the man in front of you as he truly is.

Appreciation is acknowledging the Black man as he sits,

Draped in the dazing yet comforting homogenous aura of the black back drop.

Appreciation is looking into his eyes,

And immediately understanding the struggle.

The struggle that approximately 1.2 billion people face across the globe.

Appreciation is welcoming the fact,

That you are a proud member of that sum.

It is the understanding of the true power captured within an otherwise simple image.

The Black man in the black hood looks outwards and onwards

Perhaps suggesting a longing for societal change.

Probable, but in truth

it is silly for one to pinpoint the explicit meaning

Behind his unwavering gaze

For the beauty of his stare

Is not to be found within the hue of his eyes

Or even his glowing melanated skin

No.

It Is found in its applicability.

He is looking upon what I face in my own life

Because as a member of that 1.2 billion

This Black man in the Black hood

Is

Me.