From the Trib'
.
Here's What's Wrong When We Start Labeling People
April 25, 2006
Charles M. Madigan
The nation is in a political debate about immigration. One little chapter of the struggle focuses on what we should call the people who come here, with papers or not, for work. Aliens, immigrants, migrants, illegals. We cast around, searching for something politically acceptable, something correct.
When we finally settle on this question, we will have committed one of our most common cultural offenses, the labeling of people as members of a class. No names. No stories. No personalities. Just members of whatever group title we settle upon.
In the category of wrongs, it might not seem like a great offense until you think about what labeling does.
It creates an inhuman description of very human people.
It diminishes them.
Here's What's Wrong When We Start Labeling People
April 25, 2006
Charles M. Madigan
The nation is in a political debate about immigration. One little chapter of the struggle focuses on what we should call the people who come here, with papers or not, for work. Aliens, immigrants, migrants, illegals. We cast around, searching for something politically acceptable, something correct.
When we finally settle on this question, we will have committed one of our most common cultural offenses, the labeling of people as members of a class. No names. No stories. No personalities. Just members of whatever group title we settle upon.
In the category of wrongs, it might not seem like a great offense until you think about what labeling does.
It creates an inhuman description of very human people.
It diminishes them.
6 Comments:
This is asinine. If we can't lable something, it takes away the possibility for debate. We cannot say "I'd like to discuss the topic which cannot be named."
commonsense-
i beleive he's talking about labeling people, not specific issues.
Well said. Our society would be better off if we did not judge people by labels alone, but by who they are as people.
"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
i'm with you there, fargo.thanx.
well, i don't think that hope can be better expressed. thanx tom.
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