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Photo by Matheus Viana from Pexels |
Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir. I couldn’t help but note your shade of melanin.
At the end of the 80s a trio gathered in Virginia’s state, USA, and they made difference while they were a band. This group consisted of Toby Mckeehan (better known as Toby Mac), Michael Tait and Kevin Max. Together they released five studio albums and made some concerts around the world, which some of them were later released in video.
But, what this group made of different? Firstly, they consisted of two white men and a negro (they made a song about this!); secondly, they mixed hip-hop, rap and rock; and, lastly, all of this was made in a Christian environment. The recommendation I did on the blog, from the album Free At Last, from 1992, there’s something more about their history and some prizes they had won. Alas their last studio album was in 1998, although from time to time they reunite for commemorative concerts, but no new songs as DC Talk, the band.
Since their start, the lyrics were always turned to the Christian view, but never forgetting the world view with its flaws and needs. In 1995 the album Jesus Freak was released, probably the band’s biggest hit, and in it the lyrics talk about spiritual themes (as Jesus’ acceptance, hypocrisy, atheism) and socials (seeking a friend’s forgiveness, racism, facing the tolerance and acceptance), themes that today, in the high of 2020, are prevailing. Among them, I want to highlight the song Colored People.
Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir. I couldn’t help but note your shade of melanin.
That’s how the song starts, right to the subject it wants to talk about. It sounds racist, doesn’t it? Even more inside North America’s context and history, we see a past and present of conflicts. We've got names who fought and keep on fighting for this cause, like Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and many others. Recently we had the sad event with George Floyd, a black man who had his life shortened by the hands of a white police officer, a spark that rose a great of wave of riots in the USA. But song takes a different route.
I tip my hat to the colourful arrangement, ‘cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin.
This excerpt shows that, even though there are bad people around us, there are those who know how to admire the differences, who understand that the divergence make us stronger and turn us into better beings. It isn’t one’s colour that defines them good or evil, better or worse. It comes from their character.
God made everything perfectly, even more the human being. He made all races and types, and made them at His own image and similarity. For Him there is no difference of colours.
“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27
And since we know that, we mustn’t create conflicts because of this kind of situation. We must unite to deliver better conditions for everyone. We are human beings and live in the very same space. Let’s teach our kids that their origins don’t make them superior. Everybody has a history, and we all have a fight to win. We are in the same team seeking the most humanitarian and egalitarian way for everyone. Even not being an easy and fair fight, together we are stronger, like this beautiful chorus reinforces:
We’re
coloured people, and we live in a tainted place.
We’re coloured people, and
they call us the human race.
We’ve got a history so full of mistakes,
and we
are coloured people who depend on a Holy Grace.
This song
was a suggestion that my brother, Matheus, sent. You can check the song and
read the lyrics in the links below, as watch this text's video on YouTube (English subtitles enabled).
Give your suggestion in the comments or on Instagram. Who knows if it can be the next to show up here!?
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/GLDuaMZ-yds
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Dc-talk-colored-people-lyrics
Listen on: Deezer | Spotify | YouTube | YouTube Music
