The Power of a Label

It's not what they call you, it's what you answer to.


I'll never call you my b*tch or even my boo. There's so much in a name, there's so much more in you.


My name is Kunta... Kunta Kente...

Right off the top, these quotes popped in my mind. The POWER of a label. Ahhhhhhhh... Ya know, labels define, right? They describe, inform and stamp an impression in your mind of what's to be expected. You can either control your own destiny by determining who you are, hence creating your own label... or you can have your image altered by what you let other people label you. SB: Random prank I heard on Z100... go to your best friends house and remove all the labels from their canned foods in the cabinet... Off the vegetables, the broths, the soups, sauces... everything! Can you imagine opening a can of beans, hoping for the tomato sauce LOL... Don't judge me!

The first thing I do when I go to buy food or drinks at the grocery store is check the label. I need to know calories, sugar, sodium... vitamins, percentage per serving... the whole shuh-bang! How dope would it be if only people had a label on back that would reveal the percentage of lie over truth, reliability, trust... good sense of humor, creativity or how equipped they are in time of need.

Oh but wait! Ah, Ha! There is a label found on each and every person... its called REPUTATION. In order to get a crash course on a new friend or a new love, you either A) Facebook stalk or B) find someone, or preferably someONES, who know them. 15 minutes with a few high school buddies and a few people on the block, you'll know which label has been stamped and certified. Not saying that every man's word is his bond, but hey, no one should buy a used car without that good ol' carfax!

My homeboy was on a find love hiatus... and when asked what qualities he was looking for, smack-dab on top was "I pray to God I don't find a hoe!" If he met a girl, he switched to Private I mode and started digging through trash bags to discover this girl's truths. And once a man labels her a hoe, mission complete, on to the next one.

Common Labels that will send a man running:
The Hoe
The Party Girl
The Liar
The (Self-proclaimed) Model
The Gold Digger
The Baby Mama
The No Career, No Job, No Schooling, Uneducated, Classless, Insecure, Lobster taste with Micky D's money, Hopeless Girl

And that's not it... there's...

The One with the crazy ex-boyfriend
The Happens on vacation stays on vacation
The If I do 'it' with an ex, it's not considered cheating
The Spend my last on my hair and nails but baby can you give me gas money

Don't be "That Girl"!! Furthermore, label's have the power to do psychological damage. Believe me, I know because I just finished taking this psych class and we studied the effects of children when you smack them with ADHD or ADD. Can you imagine what happens when you smack a girl with "The Hoe" label or any other label for that matter... and the best way to describe it, is a scene from Sixth Sense:

Cole Sear: I see [insert label here... for argument's sake, let's just use "hoe"]... I see hoe chics.
Cole Sear: Walking around like regular chics. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're hoes.
Malcolm Crowe: How often do you see them?
Cole Sear: All the time. They're everywhere.

This psychological damage clearly results in delusion and oblivion!! Followed by denial and reluctance to admit the truth. Trust me, I got an A in psych!
But anyway... back to the power of labels. Labels become your identity, they become who you are. Have you ever tripped in front of a group of people... now every time you see those people, you are now known as "Clumsy" or "that chic/dude who bust their @$$". Or better yet, you were the man in high school and you picked up a cool nickname like "Cool Breeze" or "Hollywood"... and now you're pushing 30 without a thing to show for yourself. But every once in a while you run into Hak or Fu from high school and they say, "Damn Hollywood, let me hold something." Then you feel rejuvenated and you poke your chest out for the rest of the day. All thanks to a LABEL. They either curse you, or bless you...

I thought I was gonna figure out what point I ultimately wanted to arrive at by the close of this post. Thought I'd think of something clever, or inspirational to say right before I finish with "EYEListen"... but ummm, nope.... I got nothing. EYEListen.

Be yourself, everybody else is taken! (Figured I'd squeeze SOMETHING useful in there.) *shrugs*

Ok wait, that was completely random... here's something better... Don't label people cuz it's bad, bad, bad! *bbm thumbs up*