NOT BETTER THAN OTHERS

by Nzinga António Guest Contributing Editor

Some years ago, when I still lived in Angola, my native country, I accompanied my father on a visit to someone near the harbor, in Luanda. I was shocked by the poverty. And I remembered the many luxury cars that circulate in the city. The contrast was disturbing. When I talked about this with friends in school, they told me I should get used to it. “That's the way it is,” they said. “There will always be poor people and very rich people. There's nothing you can do.”

But I couldn't agree. I know we are all children of God, and God doesn't have favorite children. He loves all His children the same way. So I couldn't accept my friends’ reasoning, although it looked like they were right. We can help to change the way things are by changing our own way of thinking. After all, society's thought is a sum of all individual thoughts.

Then I noticed that most people treat their fellowmen and women according to the differences between them, instead of looking for their similarities. Based on what is visible, we say that someone of some particular race is superior or inferior. That's what produces racial and social discrimination. And it is the root of prejudice, injustice, and poverty. So I decided to pay more attention to the good traits we all have in common.

I like to find ideas that help me to pray. And in the Bible I read, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?” (Mal. 2:10 ). So, right off the bat, we all have something very valuable, and in equal measure: We have the same Father and Mother, God. Nobody has more of the Father, and all the good we have comes from Him.

By the same token, it's absurd to think that someone has the right, by birth, to breathe more air than others. The law established by God, who is infinite, is that we all receive from Him aptitudes and talents we can discover and use, equally and without measure. When we recognize that this law of God is real in our lives, our academic work and our prospects for the future tend to improve.

As an African who has been living in Brazil since 2001, I have noticed that many young black people here have a feeling of inferiority, and this gets in the way of their educational development. This is totally wrong. Most people know it isn't right to feel superior to others, because it prevents us from seeing their qualities. But I'm convinced that it's just as wrong to feel inferior, because then we don't recognize the talents God has given us. God expresses Himself in each one of us, and gives us the strength to make progress in our lives. He can't express anything of inferior quality, which is why it's wrong and unnecessary for anyone to feel diminished.

This doesn't mean that we are all products of a cookie-cutter, exactly like everybody else. Social equality doesn't mean sameness. The talents God gives us can be manifested in individual and different ways, without implying superiority or inferiority. We can appreciate individual differences as an expression of the fact that God is infinite and expresses Himself in infinite ways — all equally good. And these ways have nothing to do with racial or social classifications.

For me, to think spiritually means to base one's thoughts on God's perfect, spiritual creation, and not on appearances. I feel sure that, as you and I do this, social differences will diminish, until they disappear completely. In this way, we can all contribute toward a better world.

About the author

Nzinga is studying computer maintenance in São Paulo, Brazil.

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