Dehumanization is the First Step—Don’t Take It
When You Start Treating People Like People
This post is a bit more serious than my other stuff. But it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot recently so I thought I’d share it.
There’s this Paul Vitale quote that I keep circling back to: “When you start treating people like people, they become people.” It’s one of those deceptively simple lines that hits like a sucker punch the longer you sit with it. At first glance, it’s almost obvious—like, of course people are people. But what he’s really getting at is how easily we forget that basic truth when it’s inconvenient, scary, or politically useful to strip others of their humanity.
The Danger of “The Other”
You don’t have to look very far these days to see how governments and media shape entire narratives around who counts as “us” and who gets shoved into the bucket of “them.” Immigrants, refugees, protesters, queer folks, religious minorities, people living in poverty—so often, whole communities are painted as threats rather than neighbors.
And it’s not just a political thing. It’s psychological. When people are labeled as “the other,” our brains almost trick us into thinking they’re less deserving of compassion. Dehumanization makes it easier to pass cruel laws, justify wars, or scroll past a headline about suffering without pausing. It’s easier to hate an abstraction than it is to look someone in the eye.
But here’s the kicker: when you strip away those labels and meet someone as a person—when you listen to their story, share a meal, laugh at the same dumb joke—suddenly, the distance collapses. They stop being “an issue” or “a problem to solve” and start being, well… human.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
We’re living in an era where outrage sells and fear gets votes. The language of dehumanization is everywhere, baked into slogans and soundbites: “invasions,” “illegals,” “thugs,” “vermin.” When we absorb that language uncritically, it seeps into how we see each other. And once someone’s humanity is blurred out, almost anything can be justified against them.
History is littered with examples of where that road leads, and it’s not a road we should be walking again. Whether it’s Nazi propaganda in the 1930s, segregation in the Jim Crow South, or more recent atrocities around the world, the pattern is eerily consistent: step one is convincing people that certain groups aren’t really people at all.
That’s why Vitale’s quote feels so urgent right now. Treating people like people isn’t just good manners—it’s survival-level important for a just society.
What It Looks Like in Practice
So what does it mean to treat people like people? Honestly, it doesn’t always require huge, dramatic acts. It’s in the small, daily choices:
- Language matters. Catch yourself before repeating dehumanizing terms. Say “people without homes” instead of “the homeless,” “immigrants” instead of “illegals.” Words shape how we think.
- Listen instead of labeling. That guy at work with political views that make your blood boil? Ask him how he came to those beliefs instead of shutting him down. (Hard, I know. My blood pressure spikes just writing this.)
- Notice the individual. The cashier, the bus driver, the stranger on the park bench—they all have full, messy, complicated lives you’ll never fully know. A smile, a “thanks,” or a moment of genuine attention honors that.
- Refuse the easy narrative. Governments and pundits benefit from us buying into “us vs. them” stories. Resist that by seeking nuance, context, and actual human voices.
A Personal Note
I’ll be real with you—I haven’t always been good at this. There’ve been times when I’ve written people off based on stereotypes, or dismissed entire groups because it was easier than wrestling with the discomfort of complexity. It’s humbling to admit that, but I think most of us have been there.
The difference comes when you pause long enough to actually see someone. I remember meeting a man years ago who had just arrived in the U.S. as a refugee. I had all these vague, media-fed notions about “refugees” as a category. But then he told me about the mango trees he missed from home, about how he worried whether his kids would like American breakfast cereal, and about his hope of starting a small landscaping business. Suddenly, he wasn’t a headline—he was just a dad trying to make a life. And that changed me.
People Become People
Vitale’s quote reminds me that humanity isn’t something we grant to others. It’s already there. But how we treat someone determines whether we see it—or erase it.
And that’s the quiet revolution, isn’t it? Choosing—every day, in a thousand little ways—to treat people like people. Not enemies. Not statistics. Not faceless issues. People.
Because once we do, the world looks less like a battlefield of “us vs. them” and more like what it’s always been: a messy, diverse, fragile, and beautiful collection of human beings trying to make it through the day.
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