Seth Ben-Ezra
It started when I was young. I’ve always liked the color black. After all, it’s the color of space and ninja! So I wore black a lot and became comfortable wearing black. I don’t really like having to think about clothes and fashion and the like. I get very uncomfortable when people look at me. So, wearing black makes getting dressed easier for me.
Over time, though, I’ve discovered other reasons that I wear black.
I want to be the kind of person who is honest with those around him. When I wear black, I feel like I’m presenting my true self, the person that I really am. I’m not trying to fool you or impress you or dress myself up. I’m simply what you see, and hopefully that will be a good thing for you. But if not, at least I was honest with you.
And black is the color of my inner self because I look at the world and see so much pain. I see all the hurting people and the oppression and the injustice, and I weep for those who are crushed. Black is the color of mourning, and so I wear black. I weep for the drug addict and the single mother and the battered wife and the unemployed husband and the family driven from their home by war and the baby torn apart in the womb and the prisoner warehoused like an animal and the woman raped in her home and the man whose masculinity is slowly crushed by the casual cruelty of his employer.
It’s only recently that I discovered the music of Johnny Cash. So, you can imagine my surprise when someone pointed me at “Man in Black”:
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.
Yes. This. This is exactly what I mean.
That’s why I wear black.
3 (or so) questions 