The Power of Labels

Hello friends! I’m back! I know this hiatus was quite long but trust me when I say it was definitely needed. We are just over halfway into this bulldozer of a year, 2020 (yes, I do feel like a giant wrecking ball just slammed itself straight into earth lol) and I am eager to resume chatting with you!

The topic I chose to write on today is labelling. It came to mind late last year and has stuck with me ever since especially with the advent of the Coronavirus (I know that word seems to be in just about everything these days and you are so tired of it, trust me when I say I totally get that!).

As COVID-19 ravaged the world one of the things that became evident to me was an issue that many of us, including myself have grown accustomed to either due to overlooking because it has become so habitual that we don’t even recognize it or we would rather just be indifferent to it. The African race has been labelled as ‘dangerous’ since prior to and now, 187 years after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Somehow time and reform have not been able to strip us of these indoctrinated notions.

Furthermore, since this pandemic began, the East Asian community – and by that I mean basically anyone with East Asian features have been ridiculed, scorned and even blamed for causing this illness. Imagine, there are people out there who believe that the owner of their once favourite neighbourhood Chinese restaurant is responsible for bringing the Coronavirus and causing the deaths of millions globally even though this person was minding his own business like the rest of the world pre-COVID (excuse me while I roll my eyes at this ignorance).

These subconscious or sometimes very conscious labels that we place on others are far reaching, pervasive and can even result in death. They make an already harsh world so much more difficult for those labelled because of loss of jobs or difficulty finding employment, abuse of all forms in the workplace and schools, racism, exacerbation of mental illness in those who are already suffering and a multitude of others.  

If we think about the most basic use of a label, personally I would think of a supermarket riddled with tons of writings on cans, bottles, boxes etc. A label gives definition to something, it in essence tells you what it is and provides you with some level of information. Therein lies the problem.

Human beings are multidimensional, a single label cannot define any individual in all his complexity and in actuality causes us to put a limit on the potential held within each person.

It is important to appreciate that these labels are not only applied by those external to us but also pertain to those we give to ourselves. We tend to focus on the extreme forms of these labels such as racism and the ideologies that lead to such a mindset but we label ourselves every single day. At times we label ourselves as lazy, impatient, undeserving, athletic, intelligent, fat and we have all heard or used terms to label others such as b**ch, thug, worthless, crazy, sexy and a host of others. If you were paying attention, you would have recognised that some of the words I mentioned would be considered positive or at the very least neutral. Although this may be so, we must be cognisant of boxing ourselves into these labels.

In order to achieve our highest potential, we have to train our minds to look beyond even those positive words and believe that we can be that plus so much more. We cannot depend on society to do it for us because if we do, then we will always be mentally enslaved, confined by the beliefs we have formed about ourselves and our abilities and perpetuated by socialisation.

Take for example a professional athlete. Many movies and shows that focus on some sporting activity typically depict the star player as struggling academically. Already and without realising it, we have been programmed to think that athletes cannot or are less likely to be academically inclined. The more and more such a mentality is propagated, the more the person it is applied to begins to believe it, hence placing a threshold on who they think they can evolve to be or do.

People who suffer from mental illness experience the hardships of labels in profound ways. Notice my choice of words. I did not say ‘the mentally ill’ but instead used person-first language. Choosing to make statements about those suffering from mental illness in this manner influences people’s attitudes which in turn controls their behaviour. Whether we like to admit it or not, we make assumptions about people based on the words used to describe them and as it turns out, a study done by Darcy Haag Granello – Professor of Counselor Education at Ohio State University, has shown that using the term ‘the mentally ill’ actually leads to lower levels of tolerance and acceptance by members of the public versus saying ‘person with a mental illness’ which highlights the humanity of the individual as opposed to emphasizing their disease or challenge.

In life, we will encounter many labels, the ones we give ourselves and those given to us. When we label ourselves it is important not to generalise that word to your entire being. For example, instead of saying “’I am so lazy”, one can say “I feel so lazy” or “I have been feeling so lazy”, that way your brain processes the phrase as something that is a passing event and not a permanent, unchangeable description attributed to self. This is something I am personally still learning to do but I have trying to put into practice more actively. Sometimes a word may describe a large part of us but it never describes us in our entirety. Remember this. You always have the power to improve yourself while accepting your flaws and your strengths, everything that makes you who you are.

Words can illicit powerful reactions from people externally and internally. Be gentle with yourselves as well as others and remember we are all fighting a hard battle the other knows nothing about!