In this article, a teacher describes his experience talking with a mother about her son's supposed "gang" life. The article is entitled "The limits of language" as it reveals how our language sometimes does not provide for more nuanced words that could adequately describe certain concepts. This comes about from his conversation when the mother describes to acknowledge that her son is in a gang. Regardless of whether he is in one or not, the mere label of someone being a gang member evokes certain emotions such as fear. In fact, the author mentions this and notices how white youth are usually referred to as "delinquents" whereas youth of color more often are labeled by their association with gangs.

The label as a gang brings problems because it does not take into account the culture of those that belong to them or the circumstances that brought them their. When people hear the word gang they are quick to disassociate themselves from those that are labeled so. The label stops those on the outside from looking into why people may be forced to join gangs. Furthermore, not all teen activity may be considered as ganglike although people may label it so. Thus, labels become dangerous because they do not properly convey a person's motivations or circumstances.