Labels are prisons. They deny us the dignity and the luxury of multiplicity of existence. Multiplicity is inherent. I am many.
If you follow the news in the papers and on your screens,
You will see that Humanity seems to have a new creed…
Before you help someone,
Before you give them your hand,
Before you look them in the eye,
Before you give them a shoulder to cry
It seems You have to first find out what their race is,
You have to know where they come from,
What is their background?
Are they male or female?
It seems you need to know,
Are they anything like you?
Do they share your faith or have none?
Are they beachbody ready or couch potato?
What is their politics?
Left or right or could not care less?
It seems to me that before you touch someone,
Before you look them in the eye,
Before you reach out and help,
You have label them,
It does not matter whether they are hungry, hated, dying, distressed,
Suffering adult running from war, or sorrowing child fleeing being poor,
You have to label them anything but…human.
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[…] Refugee Team: This for me was one great ‘thumbs-up’ act of the IOC. We live a world where labels have been used to dehumanise people who have to flee the exigencies that global greed has created. […]