Stereotyped' Poem by Bernard Snyder

You want me to be a supporting cast
because you don't think I can lead,
you look at me as inferior
because that's what you were taught to believe
I try to get memberships at your elite clubs,
but you say 'I won't fit in,
instead of checking my background
you look at the color of my skin,
I take my 'blue-eyed sister' out for lunch
you say 'I must be trying to steal her
if I wore 'dreadlocks or carried a 'backpack',
you'd label me as a drug dealer,
I try to show different ways of doing things
you say 'none of them would ever work',
simply, because the ideas were mine,
you feel so humiliated that it hurts,
you know, I wasn't really a bad person
hell, you might've became a fan,
if you'd taken a few steps 'outside the box'
and given me a fair chance.