Ask a white man what he sees when he looks in the mirror and he will answer "A man", ask a black man what he sees when he looks in the mirror and he will answer "A black man". That's the difference. To the black man the conception of skin color is of more significance because he is confronted, often negatively in the form of prejudice and discrimination, with his skin color. But the main factor underlying this divide is not the skin color itself but certain mechanism built in the human experience. What is called in the science as ingroup favouritism and outgroup derrogation. People tend to see their own group( based on skin color, nationality, city, religion and so on)as better and others as less. The "minimal group paradigm" showed that people who never met before and were divided in to two groups based on insignificant criteria (like the choice between two paintings), engaged in ingroup favouritism and outgroup derrogation. You're right when you say "But that doesn't mean that Black skin has no significance". Of course it has, but that significance is not intrinsically derrived of the skin color itself but from the meaning which is attributed to it by others and ourselves. And that is what His Majesty meant, I think, when he said those powerful words " Until The color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes". We have to overcome that natural predisposition for ingroup favouritism and outgroup derrogation. Like he said " We must become members of a new RACE, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community". The only way forward is through the teachings of His Majesty Haile Selassie I.
We Have to EDUCATE ourselves and others, That is the main tool suggested by His Majesty for the improvement of the human condition and experience, EDUCATION.
Blessings
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