We see young, white, and naked humans walking through a forest. Their attention is fixed on something we can’t see. The dark green and deep browns of the surroundings in sharp contrast with their white flesh is actually impressive because it reveals the vulnerability of humans in a way that black skin cannot. And with good reason. Black skin is an ape’s response to hairlessness and too much sun. It is as vulnerable as white flesh, but white flesh does not have the signs of fur, which is really all black skin is—an adaptation to hairlessness. If Western reason is applied to the matter, we must conclude that white skin is actually more primitive. If you shave a chimpanzee, you get the skin of the humans in the Pacific Northwest forest. This skin is heading toward something, we do not know what.
These images are in a video directed by Justin Henning. They visualize a song, “Give You Game,” by rapper Ishmael Butler and producer Erik Blood. Those two, Butler and Blood, are the ones who have captivated the white bodies in the Northwest forest. And now that our minds are filled with butt-naked images, let us take a turn and consider what human nakedness (black, white, brown, peach) means.
The human, as we can see, has the aspect of being featureless. There is really nothing interesting or striking about the human body. Now, one might argue, that if a gorilla could write and communicate its impressions to humans, it might say something of the kind about its kind. But a gorilla (by all appearances) seems ready for anything that nature might throw its way. The human body seems ill prepared for anything having to do with nature, but is a sign, a message, an SOS. It communicates to other humans: I’m totally fucked! I need you and everyone you know.
Look at the humans in this music video. They have no outstanding muscles, no apparent hardness. They are in fact childlike. Neotenic. The human out of the womb is not that far from the humans walking through those woods. It has no sharp teeth, no claws, no natural weapons. Could you imagine if humans had venom in their saliva? We would be a completely different animal. In fact, if each individual had that kind of power, the might of a gorilla or poison of a rattlesnake, it’s clear that we would not be what we are, hyper-social animals.
Our weapons are not biological but cultural. We must learn how to make and use these weapons, otherwise we are fucked. Apply a little thought on this fact, and you should find yourself in a state of amazement. Even if we leave the animal kingdom and enter the vegetable one, we still find many life forms that have more natural weapons than us. Few things are as exposed as the human, as these bodies walking through the Pacific Northwest forest. My theory is that it is this weakness that is the source of our power, which is social. It’s counter intuitive. But it seems that the weaker you are, then the more dependent you are on others. This dependency increases rather than decreases our species power, which is universal rather than particular.
