‘I don’t like the look of your back,’
Said one zebra. ‘Get out of our pack.’
‘We’re just different types,’
Said the one with white stripes
To the other, whose stripes were all black.

Would that we lived in a receptive world where the childlike simplicity of an animal parable sufficed not only to turn the hateful tide of racist rhetoric, but also to clarify and bolster the self-worth of the myriad poor souls who endure it. “Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed”, writes our Great Poet. Yet, amid the tumult of modern-day hatred and hurt, upraised voices too often defy comprehension, emitting ‘more heat than light’ as the saying goes. And the cruel crassitude of our amoral leaders – to whom any kind of enlightenment is anathema – constitutes the most tragic obstruction of all.