black man paintingMy uncle takes away food straight from the mouths of hungry lions and he does so with neither gun nor spear but with courage, great determination and wisdom. He is an expert in what he does not because he is wiser and more courageous than the older ones surrounding him. In fact, he developed that courage and wisdom by learning from his elders.

Taking a kill away from the mouth of a male African lion is just like pointing a well-loaded gun to your head and placing a toddler's finger on the trigger. Not so many people are dumb enough to venture into such a mission. On the other hand, it is a huge mistake to refer to my uncle as "dumb". My uncle ventures into this extremely scary business not to hurt those lions but to benefit from their existence.

It may sound quite scary and crazy to most of you but my uncle feeds his hungry family with this simple but scary technique - a technique he learned so well from my grandfather. In a land where only powerful paws and majestic claws make kills, my uncle with neither paws nor claws is able to supply his family and others with fresh portions of buffalo meat without even making kills. It is a huge mistake to refer to my uncle as "dumb".

We humans have come a long way and some of us have specialized in so many ways and forms. In fact, some of us are so greatly specialized to a point where we consider those activities and techniques we have specialized in, just part of everyday life. Specialization is great because without specialization, there is no evolution. Although wisdom helps a lot in specialization, specialization is not necessarily wisdom. In fact, wisdom and specialization are two separate things and it is sad at times when some of us make the mistake of using the two interchangeably.

Specializing in a life-saving technique just shows how great wisdom helps in specialization. However, it is a huge mistake to consider wisdom a requirement. In other words, wisdom only helps but is not necessarily a requirement as some of us think. Although the brain functions in all specializations, wisdom plays absolutely no role in specializing in  techniques that harm others. Also, wisdom plays no role in hatred and greed. Wisdom plays no role in racism and wisdom plays no role in discrimination. In other words, no wise person is racist and no wise person discriminates against other human beings based on color, social/cultural background, religious views, etc. 

"Black people are so dumb and that is why white people took them as slaves and continue to manipulate their lives like lab rats". I came across this statement somewhere online not long ago and got me thinking for a bit. What role does wisdom play in enslaving another human? What role does wisdom play in capturing, beating, chaining and killing fellow humans? Exactly what role does wisdom play in raping and murdering people?

Specializing in such evil activities just shows the dumber side of humans and has absolutely nothing to do with wisdom like I pointed out earlier on. So yes, black people are dumb but it is quite dumb to think white people were/are "wise" just for specializing in the evil act of enslaving fellow humans and putting generations of people in pain and sorrow.

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