Poisoned Perceptions

Elitist, Nationalist, Communist, Socialist, Sexist, Bigot, Tree Hugger, Racist…Like it or not, labels are everywhere. They have become our go-to response to quickly form an opinion and box people into categories. It is not so much the label itself that is the problem, as it is about labelism. Yes labelism is a problem and leading to poisoned perceptions.

Thanks to Urban dictionary, “Labelism” is defined as “The incessant need to declare that those who disagree with you much be given a Label”. The tolerance for “much to disagree” is probably at the lowest of thresholds Our inability to have a conversation has put us at the risk of suffering isolation. The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, says that, “Isolation is the most common challenge in this connected world. We have stronger internet connections but weaker personal connections”. Why do we think this is the case?

Everyone has a label for every other person and the bubble they live in, while living in a bubble themselves. In my view this is what happens with labelism, it is the anti-listening and ends the conversation before it begins. It is not the real news or the fake news that is the problem, here is why. Take a look at the trolls of comments on either, and you can see as to why I believe is the case. Once you have lost the ability to have a conversation, you have lost the ability to differentiate real news from fake news.

Our brains are heuristic machines and wired to be lazy, a lethal combination resulting in number of cognitive biases. We use labels as a vehicle to identify people and most times we are doing it subconsciously. The easy answers that labels help us with don’t always turn out to be the right one.

When I travel to Mexico and let people know that I don’t speak Spanish, they are confused. In the US, when people ask me where I am from, and I say Philadelphia you can see the unfulfilled look on the face. Just because I am brown, people from Mexico believe that I am an elitist returning to the country and only speaks English and people in the US cannot accept that I am Philadelphia native because they have labeled me as a foreigner. The labels have become necessary for our identity and pride but also poisoned our ability to accept diversity and use our fundamental emotion to connect with people.

In this age of acceleration enabled by the connected world, labelism has accelerated intolerance, decelerated conversations, stoked more fear than necessary, and is driving people to forget what it is like to be a human.

Here is what I think we should be doing. Don’t stop labeling people, but once you label someone and if they are different from you, stop and have a conversation to learn about each other. Research has shown that you are creating an impression of a person in less than 17-32 milliseconds. Whether it is based on the tone of the voice, subtle cues from expressions, color of the skin, or the opinion they are communicating, go ahead and feel free to label them, but start a conversation and don’t end it. Like the story of the old man and the starfish, you can make a difference one conversation or one comment at a time.

Written by a Globalist, Immigrant, Indian American, Independent ....