Labels are lazy 

Girl. Boy. Deaf. Autistic. Smoker. Married. Single. Christian. Muslim. Atheist. Straight. Gay. Black. White. Young. Old. Liberal. Conservative. Socialist. ADHD. Bipolar. Fat. Skinny. Blonde. Brunette. Redhead. Rich. Poor. Intelligent. Stupid. Kind. Arrogant. Bully. Musician. Nerd.  

What are you?  

Are you a what? Or a who?  

Labels are powerful. Labels are not facts. Labels are subjective. Labels are emotive. Labels are reactive. Labels are limiting. Labels are typically binary, and frequently associated with good or bad. Labels are divisive. They are contentious. They are gateways to polarisation.  

Labels don’t matter. Shouldn’t matter.  Unless you are a bottle of medicine, or an item of clothing, or  

Whether you say it or think it, a label evokes a powerful, automatic stereotype in our minds. The effect of which, is that the labelled person becomes “it”. It’s WHAT they are, not WHO.  The stereotype. Or worse, the stereotype threat, in our own eyes, and in the eyes of the others.  

Labels are lazy. They give us a false sense of familiarity. They give us a false sense of superiority. They blind us to the richness and diversity of life. Don’t be lazy. Do the work. Find out WHO the person is, not WHAT. Get to know the person, instead of holding on to your limiting, often false, beliefs. Labels oversimplify the world and that is why we succumb to prejudices like good or bad.  

There is so much division in the world. In our mission to be inclusive, why do we insist on labelling people to highlight differences? Two conflicting missions in my very humble opinion. Perhaps it’s time we rethink labelling, and look at people as WHOs, not WHATs.