The Inhumanity of Labels
January 30, 2026 | By David M. Wagner
Labels have an extraordinary amount of power, especially when applied to people.
I worked with a manager who told me that he saw one of our colleagues as a great project leader, but not as a supervisor – despite that colleague’s interest in managing people.
Simply by classifying our colleague as one thing (and not another), that manager eliminated an entire realm of possibilities for our coworker’s career. And immediately influenced how others saw that individual.
I was inspired to discuss labels this week after reading a newsletter from my friend and nonprofit marketing colleague, Diana Farias Heinrich.
Her message: when telling others’ stories, lead with humanity (not labels).
I thought that was a message worth repeating.
The Harm of Labels
We use labels to group people into useful categories, from which we might quickly make rapid inferences about them.
For instance: consider the impressions you might have of someone introduced to you as professional, or trustworthy, or a donor.
What images come to mind? What personality traits do you assume they have? How might you immediately be inclined to treat them?
Now consider some labels we’ve seen used a lot lately:
Criminal. Terrorist. Illegal.
What impressions do those labels conjure? Or perhaps, what are they meant to conjure?
These labels are applied for political purposes. They are intended to invoke negative or polarizing emotions.
However, even the labels we apply to people without malice can have unintended results. When we apply labels to people, they:
Activate our unconscious biases
Trigger and exacerbate conflicts
Handicap our ability to express compassion
Put another way: We see the label, and not the full person. Labels dehumanize people, for better or worse.
What to Do Instead
Again, labeling or categorizing people is something we do naturally and encounter all the time.
What can you do instead to keep others’ humanity first? Here’s a start:
Notice and challenge labels. Notice when others use labels to describe or introduce other people. Consider both their intent when applying a category (which may be benign), and the impact of that label (which may not be). How does a simplistic descriptor alter, inform, and limit your understanding of the person being labeled? If you want a fuller picture of that third party, simply ask: “why do you say that?” Examples and stories tend to require greater nuance.
Give people control over their own narratives. If you are involved in telling others’ stories – such as highlighting the impact of your work on someone who benefited or the story of a staff member or volunteer – give them control over how you describe them.
Address people as people, not labels. Whenever possible, avoid using labels to describe people to third parties. If you have a reason to talk about someone when they aren’t present, paint a fuller picture of their humanity with stories and anecdotes – not mere categories.
We could all benefit from treating each other with a touch more humanity these days.
Diana, whose newsletter inspired this post, is both a nonprofit marketing expert and the organizer of the Ethical Nonprofit Summit taking place this May. It’s a great opportunity to build the practice of ethical storytelling into your marketing and fundraising. (I’m not an affiliate, just a fan!)