LABELS

There are sayings like “first impressions make a lasting impression” “Dress the way you want to be addressed”....
I refuse to accept those sayings.
We have taken such sayings to heart such that if someone does not fulfill your expectations at the first instance they are dismissed as being unworthy of your time, effort as the case may be...
Hes an Ijebu man-therefore he must be stingy
She doesn’t wear earrings-oh she must be one of those holier than thou people
He’s quiet-he’s a green snake, must be very vindictive
He looks gentle-he must be a pushover
These are labels we have placed on people just by meeting them once.
Do you give time to know the persons philosophies, likes dislikes, values, background,....of course not. I just need to know where you’re from, what u’re wearing to put you in a category......
So much has been lost because of this.
I once had a friend who told me that just by looking at me he knows i cant do anything spontaneously or something simple as scream my lungs out.Why did he make such a statement?
He felt i looked too cool to do that. Has he seen me in a situation that requires me to scream? No he just labelled me and put me in the category “too cool to scream”.

Alas for him i went (spontaneously) for auditions to a TV show and got invited- he was shocked to see me on TV doing stuff he felt i couldn’t do and the next day he told me i had been pretending all along. Imagine the insult....... Was tempted to scream just for good measure and walked away—good riddance. Watch out, you just might see me doing the “twist” on a table.

Its my opinion that these labels we put on people contributes to some of the problems in the world today-where all Muslims are seen as fanatics, in the US any one looking even Arabic is watched with the suspicion of being a terrorist or closer home, people from Warri are seen as loud uncouth people and we have already put up a defence without giving them a chance.
The behaviour of one person has made the same brush to be used in painting those alike in tribe,religion,attitude; as if the other person does not have an identity of his own.
We are all unique beings and the attitude of one does not define the rest of us...

I think it’s all crap, a way for us to feel better than the other “i’m not like him o “ ,“i’m different “Oh you blasphemer “ have u removed the log from your own eye before commenting on the speck in your brothers eyes”.

Humans are made up of so many parts and if you think by understanding a part that you know all of someone then you are seriously mistaken but if we take everyone as a new unique discovery then there will be a significant progress in the world today....