Blog #3 Assignment (People's Perception)

Brandon Scales

Social Science

7/3/11

People's perception and lack of understanding has a direct impact on one's identity.  People are very concerned about what people think of them. When I was in church, my favorite artist/preacher Tye Tribbett was preaching on the subject of “people’s thoughts”.  He gave an example of musicians and singers posting videos on YouTube/Facebook. He said that when people post videos on Facebook and they ask, “what do you think?” If you know your music is good and sent from God, why do you need someone else’s opinion? God is the only one that should judge you because everyone in the world is not perfect so they shouldn’t criticize or judge you in anyway. If someone commented on the person’s videos and said you should stop singing gospel music. Now it’s going to impact you singing style because of what someone else think. In class we talked about Blacks and Whites during segregation. The white people always discriminated against blacks and they thought they could do what ever they want. The perception of the whites impacted the Blacks heavily. Black people began to protest and start movements in the south. The conclusion of fighting for equal rights paid off because we are treated the same as everyone else but we are still judged by our outward appearance. . In “Five Faces of Oppression” exploitation, cultural imperialism, violence, powerlessness, and marginalization all impacts a person’s identity. Exploitation is when your put on display, this affects an individual because they might be shy and they don’t like to be in front of other people. Cultural imperialism is having authority of another culture. Violence can impact someone because they can be a peacemaker and hate violence. Marginalization is putting a line or barrier that separates you. Powerlessness is when an individual has no control, if you have no control then you can’t have power your life. In “The Complexity of Identity: Who am I” the looking glass self is an example of people’s perception impacting one’s identity. Tatum said, “the. Image reflected by others is similar to the image within". When others say something about you, that's them looking at you as if they were a mirror. This impacts a person because someone’s outward appearance isn’t his or her full identity. You have to get to know the person to know their identity