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Writer's pictureBisola Mogaji

Prejudice or What?

Updated: Feb 20, 2022




Being dubbed as unfriendly is bad enough, but when unfriendliness meets unpleasant looks, it's not a good combination. It keeps well-meaning people at arm’s length.

They say ‘never to judge a book by its cover’, but what do you do when the cover self-sabotages? Such was the case of Max.

His mean look, hostile demeanor and rude approach earned him a much-desired space from colleagues. His outfits from face masks to tee-shirts were known to convey one form of negativity, sarcasm or another. Not someone you would be excited to have on your team, right?

Well, you can guess my ‘excitement’ when we fell in the same project team.

Not knowing how to even break the ice, I started by jokingly expressing how much of an unusual person he was. For the first time, I noticed a lift in his brows, obviously from a smirk well masked by his scary skull-inscribed face mask.


A few minutes into our cautious conversation he winced, complained of tiredness and light headedness.

Taking that as a cue for further conversation, I cautiously asked if he needed help. This was all I needed to ask and this 'puzzle' of a man led me into his world. Born extremely prematurely, with crossed eyes, he has had to battle several health complications from birth which of course was responsible for his physical appearance, series of heart failures, by the age of two, both lungs had collapsed and he had to be aided and for the last 27 years has had a metal substance worked through his skull, through his torso all the way to his abdomen which was long overdue for a replacement hence the pain he was now beginning to feel.


He explained as he attempted to show the visible part of the trajectory of the procedure from his skull down to me. I’m not quite sure at what point I zoned off the details….my initial judgmental disposition melted into compassion for this very much misunderstood individual.


Indeed, everything seen on the outside was a façade, some sort of life copping mechanism.

Not only did I put in a word for him to get a much-needed time off to rest before his procedure plus It was a pleasure to check up on his progress.

Alas, he was nothing close to the ‘beast’ everyone thought he was. As a matter of fact, he was a mobile life lesson on ‘how not to give up on life’. I thought long and hard on how we are sometimes quick to judge people who don't fit our ideal profile, and sometimes we even share our unfounded opinions with others handling the baton of prejudice to them.


As for me, after that experience, I got a new shine on the lenses through which I saw life and people, plus I believe I grew an inch taller in self-awareness.


Take out- When tempted to judge a book by its cover, I have learnt to rip the cover off and dive in, indeed an adventure or a lesson awaits.


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