As I was listening to one of my favorite songs, "Clever" by Erykah Badu on the album "Mama’s Gun," I began to meander off into a state of thought, which Erykah Badu's lyrics often cause me to do. The song starts off:

This is how I look without makeup
and with no bra my ninnys sag down low
my hair ain’t never hung down to my shoulders
and it might not grow ya’ never know
But I'm clever when I bust a rhyme
I'm cleva always on ya' mind
She's cleva and I really wanna grow
But why come you're the last to know?

I know the lyrics are pretty simple and it’s actually a pretty simple concept, but it’s a concept that we rarely even come close to grasping. The concept is that there is more to women, and just people in general, than the way that they look like. In this simple song Badu comes to terms with the fact that her body is not what is considered "beautiful" or "hot" by the extremely disappointing standards held in society.

Not only does she come to terms with this fact, she exclaims it, she’s not hiding it or trying to make herself look more "beautiful" than she is considered. Instead of doing that she presents a counter. A counter which is stronger than any "I am beautiful too" claim. A counter which states that she knows there is more to her than her beauty, or lack thereof, but there is actually a person behind the physical, superficial part of her that people tend to consider more significant.

I find it entirely satisfying that Badu takes pride in who she is, what she understands, and what skills she possesses, rather than what she wears (mentioned later in the song), how long her hair is, her breast size, or anything else physical.

If people would spend more time making themselves a better person rather than making themselves a better-looking person, then things in this world would work a lot differently. It’s a lot easier to learn something knew or develop a new skill than it is to grow two inches, gain another cup size, change how big your eyes are, or make your forehead smaller (without plastic surgery).

However, this is all theoretical and, as we have all hopefully realized, the world is not perfect. That doesn’t mean you can’t do your part, look further than the surface, and take people as who they are and not what you can see.