Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Labels don't define us

When a child is born, they never come out with labels. It’s the society that teaches the child to differentiate people according to the labels. A child is taught to call others with label and is taught to be a label. Black, white, tall, short, all these are just the labels. What would one be if the society never gave them a label? People would be one. There would be just one race – humanity.
 Labels are always with us. It is up to us whether to go with it or abandon it. Every corner we turn, we hear them. From birth the society, world force feeds us these labels. Eventually we all swallow them. We learn to digest and accept it. Whoever we are is not just how we look. These labels blind us from seeing who one really is.  Instead it teaches us to see them through our judgmental eyes.
Once we choose to accept the label and use the label, we create division. Where there is division, there is conflict. Conflict gives rise to war. There are differences all around because people choose labels. They choose to view people on how they perceive others to be and not on how they actually are.
The ever continuing conflict between blacks and whites started because of a label. It is not our differences that divide us. It’s our inability to accept, recognize and celebrate those differences. So what if someone is black or white, Irish or Asian? They are still humans who share the same red blood. We share the same feelings, thoughts. The piano keys are black and white. But when we play them together it sounds like a million different colors. When we choose labels, we are choosing smallness over greatness, conflict over peace. As it is said, united we stand and divided we fall. Together we can stand against it.
The moment we see a person, we start judging them. We judge and give them a label. We don’t stop to think that some other might be doing the same to us. We are so into getting and giving labels that we don’t realize its effects. We don’t realize what it is doing to us. No matter how modern we claim our society to be, we are going backwards. Even though we claim to have a degree or have pursued a career we still have not been able to get over labels. It has been in our society for such a long time that we don’t even know how to exist without it. We have accepted it as a way of our life. Everyone is different. They are unique in their own ways. If everyone is to be same, we would lose our identity. Our identity stays intact because of our uniqueness.
No baby is born racist. Yet every baby cries when they hear the cry of others, no matter the gender, color or culture. It proves that we are meant to connect and care for others. So, let’s blur the lines between us. Let’s forget that the borders even exist. Human beings weren’t meant to be slapped with labels. We accept labels so easily without even doubting them. But labels are not you and labels are not me. Labels are labels. We are meant to be free. We need to remove these labels and stop thinking small to be free. Then, we will be able to see others as they truly are.