Labels are explanatory shortcuts that help to handle the complexity of interpersonal communication. Their use permeates cross-cultural interaction, creating misunderstandings and communicative failures. Video “I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White” explores probably the most popular label – black people, which include people of African descent and skin color (Prince Ea, 2015). Labeling the human population according to their physical appearance is unnatural behavior that is destructive to society.
Race is a social construct that was invented to divide people in the past. Despite the passage of time, the artificial separation based on ethnicity persists. Black people are involuntarily assigned a group identity, which not only oversimplifies their genetic makeup but also frames them as people of lower status than the white population. Labels create artificial identities preventing individuals and cultures from attaining unity and setting them against each other.
If a person was raised without the awareness of race affiliation, they would not view themselves as black, white, or any other color. “These labels forever plug us from seeing the person for who they are, but instead see them through the judgmental, prejudicial, artificial filters of who we think they are” (Prince Ea, 2015, 02:26). In a similar manner, when little children hear child cries, they start crying themselves, regardless of the other offspring’s race, gender, or nationality.
Unfortunately, the human mind is influenced by the constant repetition of ideas, however unnatural they might be. People are so used to identifying African Americans as black that they refuse to accept the possibility of the artificiality of labeling. Rigid and stereotypical thinking compels them to view black individuals as negative and inferior to the dominant white demographic cohort. Subsequently, people’s inner resistance to equating representatives of non-white colors to them causes more distrust, prejudices, and reinforcement of a black label.
Reference
Prince Ea. (2015). I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White [Video]. YouTube.