Lyrics I Am Not a Label - Prince EA

I Am Not a Label

I am not black.
I mean,
That’s what the world calls me, but
It’s not me.
I didn’t come out of my mother’s womb saying
«Hey everybody I’m.
black», no
I was taught to be black,
and you were taught to call me that,
along with whatever you call yourself
It’s just a label.
See from birth the world forcefeeds us these labels,
and eventually we all swallow them
We digest them.
Accept the labels.
Never, ever doubting them
But there’s one problem
Labels are not you, and labels are not me
Labels are just
Labels.
But who we truly are is not skin deep
See when I drive my car
No one would ever confuse the car for me
Well, when I drive my body
Why do you confuse me for my body?
It’s my body
Get it.
Not me.
Let me break it down
See our bodies are just cars that we operate and
drive around.
The dealership we call society,
decided to label mine the
black edition.
Yours the Irish or white edition,
and with no money down,
zero percent APR,
and no test drive.
We were forced to own these cars
for the rest of our lives.
Forgive me, but I fail to see the logic or pride
in defining myself,
or judging another by the cars we drive,
because who we truly are
is found inside.
Listen, I am not here to tell you how science has concluded
that genetically we are all mixed in
race in the human species doesn’t exist, or
how every historian knows that race
was invented in the fifteenth century
to divide people from each other and it has worked perfectly.
No.
I’m not here to lecture.
I just want to ask one quesiton.
Who would you be if the world never gave you a.
label?
Never gave you a box to check.
Would you be white, black, Mexican, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern,
Indian?
No.
We would be one.
We would be together.
No longer living in the error of calling human beings
black people, or white people.
These labels that will forever blind us from seeing a person for who they are.
But instead seeing them through the
judgemental, predjucial, artificial filters of who we think they are.
And would you let an aritificial label define yourself?
Then my friend you have chosen smallness over greatness and minimized your self.
Confined and divided your self, from others.
It is an undeniable fact that where there is division
there will be conflict, and conflict starts wars.
Therefore, every war has started over labels.
It’s always us versus them.
The answer to war, racism, sexism, and every other ism is so simple that
every politician, has missed it.
It’s the labels.
We must rip them off.
Isn’t it funny how no baby is born racist
yet every baby cries when they hear the cries of another.
No matter the gender, culture, or color.
Proving that deep down, we were meant to connect, and care for each other.
That is our mission, and that is not my opinion.
That is the truth in a world that has sold us fiction.
Please listen.
Labels only distort our vision, which is why
half of those watching this will dismiss it
or feel resistance, or conflicted, but
just remember.
So did the cata pillar, before it broke through its shell
and became the magnificent butterfly.
Well, these labels are our shells, and we must do the same thing
so we can finally spread our wings.
Human beings were not meant to slapped with labels like
groceries and supermarkets.
DNA cannot be regulated by the FDA.
We were meant to be free, and only until we remove them all
and stop living and thinking so small.
Will we be free to see ourselves, and each other
for who we
truly
are.