Pigeon-holing – a poem about stereotyping

Pigeon-holing

 

Pigeon-holing is laziness.

It stops you having to think.

You don’t have to challenge your ideas

Or search for the missing link.

The herd mentality

Like to reinforce those labels

With uniforms and badges

That get stuck to lapels.

Everything is neat and tidy –

Neoliberal, fascist

Individualist and freak –

Slotting into little holes

Like the days of yesterweek.

But nobody fits into those patterns

Like they were all mindless fools,

Indoctrinated morons

Or kids deprived of schools.

Each one of us is totally unique,

A law unto themselves,

Not the stereotyped person

You wish to seek.

So listen to what they might have to share

And weigh up their words with great care.

 

You might learn something;

It might make you think.

 

Opher 26.12.2017

 

 

There is a laziness involved with stereotyping people – we no longer see them as people! They become two-dimensional objects without personality or views. They are merely seen as numbers to slot into a hole. They can be ignored, ridiculed and cast aside. Their opinions are of no consequence. They are no longer real people, with real views. They are just a cardboard cut-out.

But we are all different. We all have views. We are all important.