For us, social animals…

It's so easy to put someone in a box. It's so convenient to reduce someone to a skin color. An "exotic" accent. A strange flag. A name with K's and Z's in unexpected places.

We want to go fast, so we don't try to see more. We are afraid of the unknown, so we don't try to understand what is beyond us either.

It's all instinct, isn't it? We always look for what is similar to us. Why make the effort to look for things that resist our understanding?

I have the impression that this is how we have sectorized our societies. Not out of malice, but out of fear, out of convenience.

This is how the notion of the Other, with a capital O, is born. The Other that we isolate. The Other that we fear. The Other that we hate.

It is in the gaps of these rigid societal classifications that we fall.

We, who come from "far away" but who do not belong to "here" either. We who have exchanged our language for yours.

We, the incomprehensible.

Welcome to the cracks of society's arbitrary classifications, friend.

You are a patchwork of cultures,

Too different to fit in, apparently, huh.

The moment you step into this new world, notice, understand and assimilate the undeniable difference that separates you from your peers.

Understand that you will always have to make more efforts than the others to have the right to what they have by pure virtue of being born here.

Because if you have the audacity to want to fit in...

If you have the arrogance to want to become one of them...

Be prepared to become flawless.

Be prepared to become inconceivable.

Be prepared to become incomprehensible.

Because THEY won't expect less from you.

Because people don't want to know you. They want to know the perfect persona you've sculpted for them.

Be prepared to be the "token" friend, who we rub shoulders with just to get the "Hey I'm not racist I have an immigrant friend!" joker.

You know what will happen if the mask falls off
You know what will happen if you dare to be less than perfect.

Remember, friend.

Remember, what being different has done to us.

Everyone expects you to be perfect. Society, family, yourself.
This world does not want to understand you, it does not want to love you.
You are only there to make your people look good, remember.
all eyes are on you.

You don't want to be amputated from your experience, because that would be to amputate a part of your identity. And you don't want to be reduced to your eccentricities either.
Do you want to be yourself, or do you want to be loved?
You've been fighting yourself for so long that you don't even know what language your thoughts are in anymore. :)

Cutting off your horns will not be enough.
You need to cut more.
You need to amputate more.
You will always be seen as the odd one out until you look like them.

But despite everything, it is in this fragile balance that I am convinced we can create a less disgusting world.

A world where we all try to look straight into the unknown, and look for something that speaks to us. A world where we manage to understand how the "intruder" is unique.
A world where we are no longer afraid of the unknown.

Because we do not have the same experience, but this experience often results in lessons and feelings that we all have in common. Right ?

Growing up without friends.

Feeling like no one understands you.

Feeling like you can't be yourself around people.

Yeah sure, those who come from other countries are familiar with these feelings. But these are not solely the experiences of immigrants, are they?

Everyone knows these feelings, we just haven't experienced them in the same context... You know what I mean?
And even though we don't have any experiences in common, that's the fun part about making friends, getting to know them!
Right ?!

I mean. I might be saying some crazy stuff so let me know if...

… pardon ?

Ah, you really mean it?

Yeah... Maybe we should focus on that, huh?
Learn to know each other, to respect each other...
We can at least try, right? I don't know...

Of course we don't all have the same experience and of course we won't be on the same wavelength with everyone, no need to hide from it either.
But there will always be someone, somewhere, who doesn't look like you at all but who will still manage to understand you!

No matter where you come from, everyone can share a good hot meal... That at least makes everyone agree, food ! Haha !

Hehe...
...

(Damn I'm spitting bars out here.)
(I should make a comic out of that.)

Haha... Maybe I'm too optimistic. I wouldn't blame you if you think I'm a bit crazy, talking about... social animals and boxes... and all that...

To be perfectly honest, I was saying earlier, "You're incomprehensible" but actually I said that mostly because in middle school I was told that my accent was incomprehensible... And i'm still not over it. Hehe...

It's... I wanted to say something cool but actually... Well...

Incomprehensible doesn't sound good, I prefer to say "unfathomable", like an abyss that you want to explore, an abyss full of mysteries and things to discover!

Yeah…

"Unfathomable" has a nice ring to it.