James Moore Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

(“Rainbow Body” detail, 2018, original encaustic)

The Color of Race

Despite what modern sociology tries to tell us,
Race is not a social construct.
It’s a biological thing based on genetic code.
But it isn’t really based on color.

Take black for instance
Obviously all blacks are related as humans
But are not all the same race.
The blacks of West and East Africa 
And the blacks of southern India
Australia and Southeast Asia are not the same.
Then you have the San Bushmen of the Kalahari,
All clearly and distinctly different, but all 
By merely geographical adaptation,
With nut brown to near black skin.

Then there are the whites 
All now grouped together
From northern Europe to northern Africa
With all shades from sun absorbing
Almost pigmentless pale tan
To rich sunbaked sun reflecting golden brown.
There are at least a few sub-races there.

Same for Asia, which is why in the old days
Anthropologists classified humanity as at least
Eleven different races.
Since then the blending  
Has only increased, diluting regional clines
Into a more homogenized whole,
So now we’re down to a simplified Big Three
Or as some would say, dumbed down
To just the one “human race.”

Such simplifying sounds good on paper perhaps
A way to make us all equal
While at the same time somehow denying
Our hard won distinct and diverse differences,
But just imagine us doing this with sound
Or the other colors?

All notes reduces to one “white noise”,
Although of course we’d have to call it
Something different!
All colors of the rainbow combined into one
Which might be pure white or black 
Depending on your preference,
But as a painter I’d say more like a muddy brown.

As a painter I’d have a hard time making art
With only a muddy brown palette.
As a musician I’d have a hard time making a song
From that colorless noise.

What would the world be 
Without our inherent differences? 
Safe, secure, bland to the point
Of total boring.
Bland enough we’d never want to ever wake up.

Now I think I see the plan.

(9/19/26)

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