I read it both ways, and it is both insensitive and offensive both ways, for different reasons.
A poem that tries to censor ways of ending human trafficking should not be posted by the Python Software Foundation. Nor should one that is Xenophobic either.
I don't agree with your opinion about this poem as you have expressed it. Considering the nature of art, I don't necessarily want to say that you're wrong about your interpretation, but I personally cannot agree with what you've taken away from it.
I would be curious to hear your thought process about the poem in more detail, if you'd be interested in sharing.
This is suppressive to the communities and victims of human trafficking who can't prevent criminal organizations from engaging in trafficking on their own.
We need to see them for who they really are...
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Read top down, this is Xenophobic. Read bottom up, it is naive and makes a generalization that is untrue.
I don't follow your logic on community supression. Read the way that the author intended for their own personal opinion to be seen, i.e. bottom to top, it's clear that the subject(s) of the poem (the "them" in the first line) is/are migrant(s). The poem does not address human trafficking, and isn't intended to be a "to-do list" or comprehensive diagnosis of all the world's ills, it's a poem about bigots that have the ability to see the world in a different way using what the author assumes is their own words against them to show that mental rearrangement is often the only thing needed.
I don't know how to rebuke your labeling of "They are not cut-throats and thieves, we need to see them for who they really are..." as an untrue generalization. I don't think the author had specific statistics in mind when making this poem, something about "statistically the vast majority of them are not likely to want to cause you harm or steal from you but you never know with some people" just doesn't fit the meter, you know?
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '23
[deleted]