Learning Its Way Out

“It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ changes. Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live, and let’s change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn’t working, so it’s on us to do what we gotta do — to survive.”

Tupac wrote those words decades ago, and yet here we are. Reading the headlines, scrolling the comments, and realizing his song could’ve been released yesterday. “Some things will never change,” he said. As a warning. A mirror. A call-out.

Because the truth is the racism he rapped about didn’t evaporate. It didn’t age out of the culture. It didn’t disappear with better slogans or prettier speeches. It’s still here. Sometimes loud, sometimes polite, sometimes hidden behind Bible verses and “I don’t see color” platitudes. And every time someone pretends it isn’t, they prove his point.

We learn separation early. Like mistaking a car for the driver, we confuse the body for the self. Tupac felt that fracture. So did the Yogis who spoke of One Life moving through every form. The fixation on difference is an illusion, but illusions still divide while we believe them. We don’t heal what we refuse to see. Growth asks for discomfort. To look each other in the eye. Under every skin and story burns the same spark, a consciousness learning its way out of ignorance.