Labeling Pressures

by Neethi Srinivasan – University of Michigan

There is a saying that if you assume something about someone you make an ass out of yourself and the other person. Though this “clever” comeback may often find its place in recess discourse (along with the ever so popular “talk the hand because my face don’t want to understand”), there is a lot of truth to it. An example of the ass-ifying effects of assuming occurred during this past weekend where upon pulling up to a tollbooth my father was greeted by a “Namaste” from a Caucasian toll officer. Initially, I thought it was a nice gesture on the part of the toll officer to acknowledge Indian culture and heritage. However, her apparent awareness seemed to translate to ignorance in my father’s mind. “Did she think that all Indians speak Hindi” or that “We don’t speak English,” my father asked while ranting afterwards. Though I personally didn’t jump to the same conclusions as my father, I did start to wonder about the significance of ethnic/cultural labels. Are labels and the assumptions upon which they are founded on just another function of humanity’s collective impatience?

The label of “Indian” is obviously loaded with many connotations, both good and bad. However, these characteristics with which we choose to define ourselves are often not congruent with society’s ideas about our identity. For example, when I refer to myself as an Indian it is of a completely superficial intent. I am physically Indian (i.e. brown), but I very rarely align my personal ideals with the socially constructed idea of Indian culture. I am not religious/overly traditional, a pre-med (or an engineer for that matter), a fan of Bollywood flicks, and I don’t speak or understand Hindi. In fact, the extent to which I do not emotionally identify with the “motherland” is summed up in the fact that my friends often refer to me as “the coconut”- brown on the outside, but white on the inside.

However, placing myself within the “white” mold is also socially dangerous. The moment you assign people such labels, you also strip them of their right to be an individual. You also place tremendous expectations on individuals to fit into the preconceived notions of what a certain identity entails, and thus, set forth a cycle of questioning the legitimacy of a persons identity if they do not conform to those ideas. In addition, labels help to foster a more judgmental society, whereupon identifying someone as a certain individual we automatically make many assumptions about their character. Such judgments can be very confining to an individuals personal growth.  If we do live in such a free society, shouldn’t we have the opportunity to define ourselves without the pressures of labels?