Of Black Sheep & White Flies

The term “black sheep” stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more common white;

these sheep stand out in the flock and nobody wants them because their wool can’t be dyed, therefore it was traditionally considered less valuable. In many languages The Black Sheep is an idiom used to describe an odd or disreputable member of a group, a family, a society. Other members would tolerate them if they have to, but not accept them, unless they’d change.

In most sheep a white fleece is caused by a common dominant gene that switches color production off. It rarely happens that white sheep give birth to a black lamb (quite shocking for the ram I suppose), what is caused by a recessive gene, let’s say a gene that wanted to prank us (especially the ram). In my opinion it is a very intelligent gene: everybody knows what happens if you jump in the mud wearing a white coat!

So, there are a couple of reasons for the non-acceptance of our little new born lamb: one, for the family quarrels (the ram still rages through the flock finding a black male) and two, for the breeder that won’t sell its wool. The family could tolerate the little one (it feels wrong to kill their child) but they won’t accept it, they don’t know about genetics. (The breeder wouldn’t feel wrong to kill it.)

How’s our little black lamb to feel about that? Like a human Black Sheep: it will feel the lack of a sense of belonging.

What is it that makes someone a Black Sheep? We could think about the most weird things, but usually you won’t notice them at first sight. It’s not (only) about colors, it’s just about seeing things differently and as we can’t dye the fleece of our little black lamb we can’t change being who or what we are.

The things that make people a Black Sheep are the very things that make them who they are, and they couldn’t change them even if they wanted to.

So, our little lamb can’t change its parents’ minds by explaining genetics to them, it will be much easier to identify other black sheep and band together, to form another (small) flock where it definitely will be a White Fly*!

*White Fly: in the Italian language a White Fly is a person or object with particular characteristics compared to others. The term is used with a specific positive connotation to indicate that the subject is a rare case for its qualities.
(Black Sheep or White Fly? After all it’s only a point of view.)