Editor’s Note: This is the first in a four-part series about labels and stereotypes used for different races and ethnicities. This series explores the use of different terms and definitions and attempts to answer what labels are appropriate and why. The subjects in the series were chosen for their diverse backgrounds and include sources born in the United States and abroad from a variety of cultures.

Checking the box is a part of life.

Every schoolchild in America encounters it on each standardized test — fill in the box and identify yourself: black or Hispanic or white or Asian. And, as those children age, they mark their race or ethnicity even more, on scholarships, applications and census questionnaires.

Most Americans will check a box, fill in a circle or a blank without taking the time to think about the purpose of the questions or the personal struggles the questions create for some who have to specify their race.

“You have to try to squeeze who you are into one little box,” said Blaise Cordier, junior in mechanical engineering.

But, he said, it isn’t something he thinks too much about. Although he is biracial, Cordier said he checks black and gets on with it.

“Sometimes I’d want to check other because I know I’m more than just black,” he said. “[But] I’ll just check black.”

Tekara Stewart, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production, said she uses black in many cases, though it isn’t her first choice. She now identifies herself as both German-American and Black American. She considered herself Black American until she realized she wasn’t including her mother’s side of the family. On tests and applications, she doesn’t always get to include both her German-American and her Black American sides.

“You’re leaving people out. There’s not a box on there that says that,” Stewart said.

When a blank line is provided, she’ll write both in, but she refuses to check other, Stewart said.

If she marked European-American, no one would believe her once they’d seen her, she said.

“I was just answering the sheet the way they expected,” she said.

Love Anjonrin-Ohu, sophomore in mechanical engineering, said she knows many people with mixed heritages who have a tough time when it comes to checking a box.

“It’s horrible. It really is,” she said. “They’re like, ‘I’m not just black. I’m not just white. What am I supposed to put?'”

Rather than attempt to choose only one term, some people regularly check all the boxes pertaining to them, she said.

J. Herman Blake, director of African-American studies, said he found it ironic that he hadn’t thought about what it means to check a box. He refuses to use labels but has always checked it without thinking about the reason someone needed it.

“It’s interesting because when I do have to check it, I don’t feel anything,” Blake said. “I just go ahead and do it, almost like it’s automatic.”

Why labels exist

Humans label. They label physical objects. They label emotions. They label everything around them, including people, to help make the world easier to understand. But sometimes labels hurt, even when they aren’t intended to, Blake said.

Sometimes stereotypes come from “very well meaning and sincere people,” Blake said, but those people may not know the impact those stereotypes have on the individuals they are directed toward.

Labels are formed through life experiences, and people have those labels until someone proves them wrong. If people don’t interact with anyone from a specific group, they don’t have a real basis for their view of the group, Anjonrin-Ohu said.

“You think of people as a label until someone takes that race or nationality or sexuality and puts a face on it, puts a humanity on it,” she said. “Until you really get to know somebody who’s black or who’s Asian or gay or something like that, you’re always going to think what everybody’s told you or what you’ve always seen on TV.”

Some minorities reinforce the labels and stereotypes placed upon them when they were young, Anjonrin-Ohu said. After years of being told they should speak a certain way, dance a certain way or behave a certain way, some people become the stereotype. People start to act how they are treated, she said.

“I do think it’s important to stress that it’s not just the white people that are really putting emphasis on this label, it’s also the people who are being labeled that way,” she said.

The labels used and the perceived meanings will change on an individual basis. Each person’s unique experiences create generalizations to help govern interaction. The key is to remember though generalizations may be grounded in some truth, they will not hold across the board, said Eric Henderson, junior in sociology.

Labeling creates categories. Grouping by common characteristics helps people study the groups in an attempt to understand their place within the world, said Roy Salcedo, program assistant for the ISU Honors program.

“I think humans label and put everything into categories to understand,” he said. “We can’t think limitless.”

Grouping is human instinct, the way the human brain works, Anjonrin-Ohu said. It’s a way to remember and to organize information.

Labels help determine how people will communicate, said Amanda Berenguel, senior in child, adult and family services.

“We as a society, we have to put labels on people to communicate with them in a certain way,” she said. “We have to know gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation to talk to them.”

Defining oneself is based on the “other” results in labels, Blake said. Each person has a certain set of attitudes, beliefs and values, about the “other,” which they use to define themselves. He said he’s seen people define themselves as saints because they could identify a sinner. If they could identify a sinner, then they must be saints, he said.

“It’s not surprising in many respects that we do that, and we ask why. Because I think it’s part of being human that we see ourselves in terms of the ‘other,'” he said.

The need for labels seems to be particularly important in the United States, said Maite Lizaso and Jon Lizaso.

“Can’t it just be American?” Maite, senior in psychology, said. “In this country, it’s like people are always finding a label for everything.”

People seem to need the labels to be part of the group. That need is at odds with the American value of individualism, so maybe human nature creates a need to be part of a group, Maite said.

History seems to have a place as well. Slavery divided the country into separate groups. When slavery was abolished, the sentiment of being divided remained a part of American culture. Labeling is probably just a way to maintain that division, Maite said.

“Maybe it’s not even the racism anymore, just organizing society into groups,” she said. “People get so used to these groups that they forget if they wanted to be in the group to begin with.”

Maite recently realized she’s developed race consciousness while looking at pictures from her farewell party before she left Venezuela, where she was born.

In one photo, she pointed out a friend as black.

“I never noticed; why didn’t I notice before?” she said. “They were just Venezuelan to me. What is it about this society that opened my eyes and made me see these differences?”

Jon Lizaso, postdoctoral research associate in agricultural and biosystems engineering and Maite’s father, said the emphasis people placed on labels confused him when he came to the United States from Venezuela.

He said he remembers when he was studying in Michigan, the university’s newspaper made a big deal out of a policy change making the official label African-American instead of black.

The change’s importance confused him, because in Venezuela, black is an endearment, he said. Daughters are called mi negra, my black, while girlfriends or wives are called mi negra linda, my beautiful black.

“Coming from that culture, it was hard for me to understand the emphasis placed on being politically correct,” he said.

People trying so hard to be politically correct is just covering the problem, he said.

“Some people say it’s the first step. I’m not convinced of that,” Jon said. “If we feel [we are] using the right word, we might feel we’ve accomplished something when we haven’t.”