Picture the latest “Never Stop Milk” commercial. See the black and white images of ordinary people having labels like “geek” or “nerd” or “loser” fall slowly to the floor. While the people move forward, and the labels get swept into the trash. Now, picture those same images next time you are on a busy downtown street or a hallway at school. The homeless person sitting against a building now becomes just a person who is tired resting for a minute as other people rush by. The person in the expensive coat and perfect hair rushing past you is not a “rich snob” but just a person in a hurry. The boy with long hair and big glasses and pants too short for him with his nose in a book is not a “geek” or a “loser” but just a boy reading a book. You see that the person in the wheelchair, perhaps struggling though the snow but still refusing your help, is not a helpless “disabled person” but a person in a wheelchair who is determined to be independent. When you start to take away the labels, you “see” the people before you “see” the labels. Perhaps the busy person will have time for a quick smile, or the boy with the book will look up and see a friendly face. And perhaps the person resting against the wall, really is just tired, and if they happen to not have a place to live having one person see him or her as a person will go along way to making him or her feel like a person again.
I believe that if people took a little time to see the people before the labels a whole new world would open up for them. Perhaps some one will see the young man at their school who walks with crutches, not as the boy with crutches but see beyond his awkward gait to see his warm smile, and notice that he has fairly built upper body, a positive effect of using crutches most of his life. Start to notice that he is kind of cute and realize that he takes his time to talk not because he is “stupid” but because he puts a lot of thought into what he says so that every sentence has purpose and meaning. Qualities that I think quite outshine the fact that he uses crutches to help him move around so he can do the things he enjoys doing. He may always be labeled as “the person with crutches”, but the first step is already being made because you are putting the person before the disability.
I am a 25 year old woman who uses a wheelchair. I have always been “disabled” but I haven’t always used a wheelchair. I use my wheelchair now because it makes my life easier to live. I do have elbow crutches and use them when I can, which in the snow isn’t often. I find the chair more convenient, it makes it easier to carry things and I can move around the city more efficiently then without it. It makes me more independent. I used to label myself as a “wheelchair user”. However as I became more comfortable with myself, my wheelchair became just a method I use to get around. While it is part of who I am, it is not ALL of who I am. It is because of this that I find the idea of “labels” interesting.
I was recently allowed to partake in an experiment in my dance class. My dance class is made up with a few individuals in wheelchairs and a few more individuals who don’t use any mobility aids. In this class all of us have learned that we can move beyond our own boundaries. For those of us in chairs we are learning how to use our bodies and our chairs to make beautiful movements and interesting forms of art. For those who don’t use chairs they are learning how to get to know the people in the chairs like they would get to know any other dancer. One time we put them in chairs, and they learned not only how it is like to use a chair but how the chair is just another tool to be used to make a dance. In this recent experiment we were asked to wear medical face masks over our mouths. But before we put them on we were told to label them with something we felt we were but didn’t want others to always label us as. I chose “silly”. I don’t care if people call me disabled anymore because I know I have a disability and I am learning how to own it, even in its changing conditions. Other dancers used labels similar to “nerd” “meek” “insane” “butch” and one individual in a wheelchair did use a word similar to “gimp”. The interesting thing about labeling yourself that wearing that label over your mouth as you go about a regular activity is that you start to forget about the label, or you incorporate the label into your movements. You learn to take ownership of it. You may make “meek” movements, or you may begin to think of ways that you can adapt to seem not as “meek.” It makes you really think about it. And the important thing to remember with this exercise is that we label ourselves. These were things we worried about, labels we felt we needed to address within ourselves. Even after the experiment was over, I still think about the word “silly” and how that label makes me feel and how I want it to make me feel. I’m not sure what affect the exercise had on the other individuals in the class but I do know a few girls asked to take the masks home, so I know that I did have some impact on them.
I ask you to think about labels not because I think that we shouldn’t have labels. Labels will always exist. We give them to ourselves and we give them to others. We label our fathers and our mothers, our friends and our acquaintances. We live in a world full of labels. But do they always have to be the first thing we see? If all the labels dropped off every individual would that change how we view each other? I believe that it would. So just experiment one day. Walk around and look at each person you see. Really look at them, before you look at the label they seem to be wearing. You never know what you will discover, about others and about yourself.
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