CHQ Dialogues Reading # 4 "Labels"

March 21, 2022

Labels

Reading #4 for Online Course for Facilitators

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abels are not always negative; they can re ect positive characteristics, set useful expectations, and provide meaningful goals in our lives. Often, however, the labels that we use to describe each other are the result of unfounded assumptions and stereotypes.

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e regularly apply labels to people 3” ID whom we barely know or have never even met. Thus, for good or for bad, once we attach labels they can have an in uence on someone’s identity

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that is often beyond our control.

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March 21, 2022

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e have established that how we say something about, or how we describe somone, is just as important to establishing civil dialogue as what we say and how we describe them.

Labeling people in particular is frequently a way to demonize them.

Two examples come to mind. Being labeled a part of the 1% has become a derogatory charge for many. But, for those like Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, such a label must be discouraging in light of the vast amount of work they have done to make the world a better place. Likewise, to label immigrants rapists or criminals just because they are trying to immigrate devalues the character of all immigrants when the data clearly shows otherwise.

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s Chautauqua Dialogue Facilitators you will have opportunities to use this information to (1) more readily identify labeling, and (2) use events within a dialogue to discuss how labeling e ects our ability to interact with each other. The following links will lead to a variety of articles for further study about labeling:

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March 21, 2022

Why It's Dangerous to Label People “Categorical labeling is a tool that humans use to resolve the impossible complexity of the environments we grapple to perceive.”

Click to read the article.

Labeling People and Con rmation Bias “When we label someone, we tend to see everything they do in terms of a fixed set of expectations.”

Click to see the video.

Read the Article

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March 21, 2022

The Danger of Labeling Others (or Yourself) “The more participants believed that personality can change, the less affected they were by being excluded …”

Click to read the article.

People Experience Homelessness, They Aren't De ned By It “The words we use to describe people powerfully affect our attitudes and assumptions about them.”

Click to read the article.

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March 21, 2022

How Labels Can A ect People's Personalities And Potential “Sometimes our expectations attach leaden weights to wings and keep dreams from taking flight. Other times our beliefs can lift people up, make them run harder and reach for more.”

Click to listen to the program segment.

An Additional Source Used in Constructing This Reading

Click to see the website.

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March 21, 2022

"Labels" The fourth in a series of readings designed to start you thinking about various issues that press directly on how we can facilitate civil discourse.

Roger Doebke and Lynn Stahl Coordinators

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