Stereotyped

“Stereotypes are fast and easy, but they are lies, and the truth takes its time.”

Deb Caletti

How do we learn, I wonder often

To put them in boxes, all women and men

Straitjacket them by country, race, color

By height, build, hair texture, gender..

Make some assumptions right off the bat

At times subconsciously, not realizing that

The stereotypical roles that we assign

To real human beings in our prejudiced minds

Represent them they do not, instead

They are a reflection of what we have been fed-

Preconceived notions borne out of distrust and fear

We take as gospel truth whatever we hear 

Again and again, such that we do not realize

How we form opinions  just by laying our eyes

On people, without getting to know them first

Of all our habits, this might be the worst..

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Many of us are guilty, and many have faced

Similar prejudices; have heard comments laced

With criticism of cohorts to which we belong

When directed at us, such stereotyping feels just wrong..

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My prejudiced notions I am trying to eliminate

Even as I teach my child not to berate

Anyone, based on their affiliations

Instead get to know them and their situations

People are more complex in this complex world

Than to be described in few generic words!