Source: Jarmoluk

Black, white, loser, geek. In my case, it was ginger or sometimes rust headed. What are all these words? Nothing in common at first sight, but I say they’re well‐known labels which people in all centuries freely used to “describe” each other. Even nowadays things are no better. Humans like to place labels almost on everything.  Let`s be honest it is so. Why? I think that it gives people a sense of order and it is a way of distinguishing information, BUT people are not things. We are human beings first and foremost.

We forget the main meaning of the word “label”. It is just a piece of paper that you place on something to identify its content. And so, it’s unfair to put labels on people. Furthermore, the use of labels can be more than unfair. It can be hurtful as well.  The most ridiculous thing I can ever think of is to stereotype people you have never ever met. It reminds me one example, just think, when you are in the supermarket and you see a container of food with a huge bright label on it. Will you buy it without looking at the contents? No. So why we are so thoughtful about food and so unfair in our treatment towards other people. The person may have a wonderful personality but we do not give him or her the chance. We just believe the label, implicitly reinforcing it. Labelling makes us blind. We see everything but actually, at the same time, we are blind.

Yes, putting labels has become natural for us but do not say that it is our human nature.  It is not. We were born to love and not to hate. It is just our own choice. Why? Because people like searching for easier ways in their lives. Labelling is so easy. You see everything on the surface and do not look inside, into the curve but we should understand the danger of doing this. One person may be strong enough to go through this label and stand tall, but in some cases, it can even break somebody`s life and that is not a joke. The self-fulfilling prophecy is real. We are all different and that is amazing. The world is so big and many‐ sided and that is great to know that somewhere in the world lives and thinks completely different to another. We must not judge people just because they are not like us.

Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal. He said it so long ago but even nowadays we do not fully understand the right meaning of this phrase. For me it means that regardless of our nationality, or our ethnicity, regardless of any aspect of our identity we shouldn’t be judged by things which we cannot change, or choose to be/believe in.

Let`s assume also the fact that we can sometimes be wrong. That is normal. And sometimes we can change our opinion about somebody or something and that is normal too. Everything we see is not always what it seems and always remember that we have at least one thing which unites us. It is a secret power, a special feeling, a universal language which everyone in the world speaks. This secret power is LOVE. So, love should be the most important thing in our lives and the worldwide language, the worldwide religion.

Of course, the problem of labels is a difficult one and EVERYONE is or has been affected by one label or another. So, if you are affected by it just always remember that we are all born brilliant, wonderful, beautiful in our own ways and the most important labels and the right labels are those which you give yourself.

By Kseniia Osadcha