Morgan Freeman said it best in a decades old interview with 60-Minutes.
Freeman was asked ‘How are we going to get rid of racism?’. To which Freeman replied, “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.”.
Those words spoke by Freeman over a decade ago, could resonate any harder than they do right now.
Imagine living in a world where humans are not labeled based on their ethnicity. Headlines don’t read, “Black Man Shoots White Man During Protest” or “Asian Family Business Forced To Move Out Of Town”. Rather, we all read headlines that read, “Man Fires Shots, Injuring Protester”, or “Family Owned Business Forced To Move Out Of Town”.
Do you see the difference? The difference just a few words can make? Social media is filled with headlines that label individuals and or groups of people. The thing is, they are just people. We are all people. We all share the same earth, breath the same air, were conceived and birthed the same way. We are all classified as humans. And that should be it.
The less labeling we do in society, the less racism and divide we have.
Freeman also pointed out during the same interview, that he does not agree with the establishment of a ‘Black History Month’. As he puts it, ‘Black history is American history’. Again, Freeman couldn’t be any more on point with his thoughts.
Having a Black History month or a white history month, native history month, etc; simply places labels. They are all Americans. We are all Americans.
If we simply stop labeling. Stop talking about this group and that group and speak as though we are one, the world can change. I truly believe that. If we don’t have headline after headline, or meme after meme, video after video, popping up in our news feeds – filled with labeling, than we would slowly learn how to speak and ultimately see the world differently.
It’s something to think about.
We are all human beings. Be kind to one another.