Labels. According to society they are something that define you. They are something that limit you and put caps on what you can achieve. I hate labels, from the label of skin color to the label of knowledge.

Most of the time we label people or things without realizing it because it is what we have been around or know. From labeling a person "rich" or "smart" to "black" or "white". I know these seem like obvious things that we are stating, but we do not realize the stereotypes we create when we group people that "fit" into these labels together. Stereotypes that we are trying so hard to break down.

I am so tired of hearing one thing after another when referencing Caucasians in the south. I'm sorry, but I cannot control where I was born. I can't control if I am born into a family of African Americans or Caucasians. I can only control my actions. The same goes for someone born into a wealthy family. It's not like before a baby is born they have the choice of choosing a family of poverty and wealth. These things cannot be controlled by the someone born into it. Yet, all I ever see is someone ranting about "white people this" or "rich people that" or "black people that". And I am sick of it. Stop putting everyone under an umbrella just because of skin color or class or what they are involved in.

People are labeled all the time. Think about it, from "band geeks" to "popular kids" in high school, or the "frat boys" and "sorority girls" in college.

Better yet, stop comparing people or blaming other people for your personal issues. I am a firm believer in working for what you want, it's the athlete in me. But just by someone saying "Oh, you're black" or "Oh, you're white", shouldn't make you feel as if you can't do something. Because guess what: that doesn't mean a single thing. You can do whatever you put your mind, heart, and hard work into. Because hard work doesn't discriminate.

But that doesn't stop people from thinking that these labels people put them under inhibit them from doing certain things, or thinking just because other people are this then they should be that, too. Someone needs to take a stand to that. Because this isn't furthering society in any way.

We speak of change but all I see is people creating barriers against each other. Barriers that aren't doing us any good. We speak of people being equal but then we contradict this by proclaiming "black people" this or "all white people are racist". Because can we for sure say that all black people are thinking the same thing or that all white people are thinking the same thing?

Stopping the use of labels won't solve all of our problems, but I think it will be a huge start to something this world really needs. So, think about what you say from "those smart AP kids" to "those sorority girls," because people have too much individuality to put them under a broad stereotypical category.