Little Bit of Real for Today

excerpt from an interview in Stop Smiling with Nas' dad, famed musician Olu Dara:

"You’re right — everyone. But everybody is different. Look at the black community. There are all kinds of denominations of churches, religions, hues, economic status. It’s the same for white folks and everybody else. But if you grow up in a world where people delineate, “We are this and they are that,” you’re overlooking the idea that we are all humans. That’s the one thing. We’re doing the same thing, we’re looking for the same shit. Everybody is trying to get something to eat, a decent place to live, a good education — all human beings are basically the same. It’s just that I think we are a lesser species than all other living things.

Growing up in the woods in Mississippi you could see that. I loved to stay around the animals, insects, plants and all kinds of beautiful stuff. Understanding how fortunate human beings are. As a kid I used to think, “Wow, we’re fortunate. Peach trees are growing, fruit trees, everything is growing. We could survive by not even planting if we don’t want to.” Everything is here, but the human being has some type of inferiority about who he is, unlike other living things. He’s combative because one person has a better pair of shoes. But we are not superior to anything. We’re somewhere way down the line. We’re afraid to make correct decisions. I think when human beings ceased to grunt and make noises like animals and started speaking, that’s when the trouble started. When the first guy started speaking, he probably said to somebody else, “What did you call me? What did you say about me? What?” Language, to me, is the enemy."