When you talk about the perception the definition is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses, in simple terms
It means that we use things we know around and what we see, hear, & feel to grasp the knowledge of things around us about from things to people around us to even others in our vicinity. In a perfect world people would build their perception off of what they know & learn like I mentioned before in the previous article “Just A Thought: Mindset” & the mental file & make an informed decision off of that, but most times perception is based on bias, stigma, past experiences, opinions, stereotypes, & straight up he said, she said not really giving someone or something a fair shake because of it as a result making a snap judgment. The fact of the matter is not everyone is gonna like you or a certain thing & hopefully, people make an informed decision be that isn’t just based on here say and speculation & actually we have to think before deciding because that is an undervalued thing these days. Perception is another important factor in life and hopefully, people respect that whether positive or negative in the bigger picture.
Life & Perception
When we talk about perception it is something we deal with constantly from the time we are born & are brought into this world and won the lottery of being born to our death when we return to the ground or as a person I knew & had respect for putting it, his name was Bro. Brandon put it so eloquently “Duuuusssttt” (You have to say it in a low voice) people will have a perception of us up till the bell tolls for us & people will have a view of us after we are gone as well, best case scenario people will have a valid take on us whether good or bad because they know us well enough & know we all come with pros and cons & even limitations in certain situations and the result of that is a constructive objective viewpoint & it is possible where we can assess & give criticism in an effective manner & be open to it, however, most times people in impatience or in a situation where they find it easier to just lean on previous experiences that have nothing to do with the person or thing now which is way easier than actually getting to know for themselves & actually using time & effort to do so & the result is assuming or jumping to conclusions because they think they know someone or something when people are just living by the eye test alone because people can have a facade or faking to cover up what is inside or whatever baggage they have, same with certain things they look good on outside but are totally different in reality. Perception is an easy thing when you are in the vicinity and people & things but it still takes the time, energy, & effort to learn about others & things around us over time and it is a never ending process of learning because people and things are constantly changing adapting, & progressing because that is just life, our perception is molded from so many things in our lives from our experiences and the biggest influences on that are the people we live with especially as we grow up like family & people around us on a routine basis the other way it can happen which is more intensive than just being around people off the top is actually opening our “bubble” (this is the metaphorical area around us), we don’t necessarily have to do this on a basic level however when it comes to adulthood whether you go college or enter life starting your own journey you have to put forward an effort & try whether making friends connecting with old ones later in life, or some other things, they require our energy or choice on our behalf because people don’t just fall in our lap if we’re not trying at all & just hoping. The hard part about being open is being vulnerable & letting people in our bubble is because you feel a certain way at times & because of life, people take it for granted or look at the actions as a chance to work someone over & it’s not limited to random people it can be family or even friends that we let in. Our perception in our lives is built on a foundation of the experiences & hopefully whether positive or negative helps us to adapt and grow as people but doesn’t interfere with our perception overall where we think it’s the norm & don’t take it for granted the whatever comes our way.
Change & Perception
When we look at perception from a broad view we are always having to adapt and progress in order to improve ourselves and not just be reactive to what is coming, but actually being proactive when we can do, we are not just overthinking because we feel surprised or because procrastination, it’s basically having the mindset that change is coming whether we like it or not. It is the same with perception over time things are constantly changing regardless & being ready for when they happen because stuff starts with an idea or intention changes over time whether because of people, the era of something now vs then, or the intention of something being started, even with something that doesn’t even have the ill will or bad intentions behind it, they are gonna change anyway. Somebody may say there’s not really change & my counter point to that is keep your head on a swivel & just be patient because everything changes in time whether positive or negative in context & just perspective in the broad view of things will show that, there are so many things we can use as a case study to learn from what has been done before, look at things like Greek organizations / the divine 9, CSO’s (community service organizations), political views & parties, certain sets that people claim, & even specific groups that people are part of now, in the beginning when they were started they had a set intention but over time the dynamic changed in turn not from them or it having some kind of consistency in it but just because of different experiences & people involved & I can also hear it now you only mentioned groups & organizations, & my response is I’m about to get there just give me a minute, patience grasshopper, if you look at change & the perception, it’s not just limited to groups it can include individuals as well. Look at Kanye, The Black Eye Peas (I can hear someone say their a group & I say you’ll be aite), Kevin Hart, Beyoncé, or even Issa Rae, they all have changed in perception because of time, things in their lives, opinions of others, or just changes because of events in their lives because of events that happened to them swaying the dynamic, if you look at Ye the dynamic changed for him after his mother’s death which is probably still something he deals with & you can see it from the first three albums in College Dropout, Late Registration, & Graduation which were before to after with 808’s & Heartbreaks or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the Peas were a totally different group in the beginning (which was made of four people including Kim Hill) to the album The End (even adding Fergie on the album Elephunk) but on their latest work they went back to the original three of Will.I.Am. , Taboo, & Apl.de.ap like Behind the Front, if you look at Kevin Hart & where he was during Soul plane & touring constantly like when he was at Places like PVAMU is way different from now because he changed improved going through things along the way, same with Beyoncé she is a different person from her Destiny’s Child days to Homecoming just a few years ago at Coachella, you may get a glimpse from time to time rarely but change still happens, same with Issa she started with Awkward Black Girl to now with Insecure, L’Oréal commercials, & is a bonafide Star doing movies now on top of all of that, however, those things would have never happened if she didn’t improve or change over time to be more effective. Change is gonna happen no matter how you slice it & if you go from person to person outlook is gonna be different whether positive or negative & either with extensive knowledge or limited perspectives.
Excuse the language of some of the clips.
Stereotypes, bias, Opinion, & Stigma
Like I said before perception Is either based on in-depth knowledge & people assess in a best-case scenario because of a person being vulnerable & on the other end people are open enough for others to see them, however, the reverse of that is people assuming & working off of limited knowledge of a person or thing & using the past to deal with them not really giving them or it a fair shake even though it’s probably outside of the norm is the other way of doing things. When talking about stereotypes, biases, opinion, & even stigmas they are constant thing everyone deals with & are never going anywhere, they are not built on concrete evidence or objective outlooks like a mental file, they use things that don’t have any factual basis to make a snap judgment on something or someone quickly or easily, even though most people or things don’t meet them whatsoever. The equivalent to this happening is walking into a science class stating there’s no gravity on earth and just walking off, we know what gravity is & have concrete evidence to make it a law & can’t just say certain things without testing it out to disprove it, in the bigger picture, same with the previously mentioned stereotypes. No matter how much money you have, how much you do, or how far you are from the norm, people will lean on what they know already instead of feeling something or someone out like I said previously. If it’s not one thing it’s another, whether it’s about race or ethnicity, physical things or preference in that realm, certain groups, or even gender, people will refer back to what they know already, this is where specific bias, stereotypes, & stigmas come from plus on top of all this is the reason I move a certain way when dealing with people like I mentioned in the article “Being Black in America” because even though I know who I am & people that know me already have a perception of me I have a specific set of bias against me that people will go to off top, most times they are based in negativity however you slice it. Also on top of all this, we live in the era of the Internet, connectivity, & social media which can be positive and negative like anything else that exists, it’s positive because it connects us way more than the ’90s & things were created because of it being around like Twitter, Instagram, & even LYFT which I do now & because their was avenue created for it to happen, the flip side of this is the negative side of things that we go through with it like because we are so connected in this time people think they know people and things for way more when actually it’s the opposite because our perception is only based on a millisecond photo, limited video, or some status a person puts out, also because people view it as norm now rather than something that is fragile in nature and has only been here for several years whether social media, messaging, or straight up & down internet & connectivity people take it for granted and in turn people dealing with people or things that we have no basis with will lean on past norms & situations to build their perception which can fill unfavorable sometimes. I have first-hand knowledge in this department because what I do, as a person that does things like photography and graphic design, there are some things I can do individually, however, things like portraits or editorials which I do regularly after sepsis, it takes collaboration and teamwork with others to do so. Tough thing with this is dealing with varying perspectives and mindsets like I mentioned in a previous article (here) because people operate in different ways & do things opposite of you & because of this I have to adapt because I refuse to lean on my past experiences & have the attitude that everyone is different from how they are on social media (which is only a fraction of we truly are) vs real life & I’m the same way with day to day things like messaging people, direct messaging people or something else. It can be frustrating at times because people either put up a facade or act differently from how they normally because or they perceive themselves one way & do differently from real life which makes no sense logically like be on social media but is absent in real life & this applies to everyone in some way. Hopefully, people don’t lean on biases & the mental file that helps creates perception if possible.
“Just because you say doesn’t prove it to be true.”
Stop Talking in Absolutes & Generalizing
When talking about perception like I said before it’s is built off information we learn over time in things and others, the opposite is when people jump to a judgment before even knowing something to be true or not, because of this people will talk in absolutes or generalize which can really pigeon hole people or things which is not really valid & just comes from biases passed down over time, an example of this is someone saying “men are trash” Aba & Preach discussed this, it’s not true statement entirely because not every guy fits that bill, by it only takes one experience of a person or one time to mess it up for everyone because that’s how people are nowadays and nothing or nobody is limited from this thinking & somethings need benefit of the doubt rather than just making a generalization that is way easier in the bigger picture. With perception, we shouldn’t jump the gun to generalize because of that effects more than us, it’s bigger than me or you.
Excuse the language of some of the clips.
Adversity & Perception
Trevor Noah has the mindset of being a person that doesn’t shy away from adversity or tough situations, maybe it’s because of what he went through growing up being a crime in South Africa during Apartheid or just the attitude he has, he doesn’t just sit quietly letting perception dictate what he talks about, prime example of this is his interview on the daily show with Tomi Lahren, he is a comedian by trade & because of this is able to respond & come up with a quip, but as a host for the daily show, he handed the interview with lots of grace and composure, because other people would have said I have my mind made up already & it doesn’t make sense to give time to polarizing people like Tomi but he wasn’t thinking that way he had an open mindset to learn what is going through her head. Most times we are quick to 86 something that isn’t our cup of tea or we don’t agree with, when we should do the opposite sometimes whether it’s friends, family, or someone on the opposite side of an issue, I’m not saying waste time on someone that already has their minds made up or just arguing for the sake of doing so., even though I could chop someone up verbally (which is why I got the nickname Perry Mason or did speech & debate when I was younger) & eloquently, I choose my spots far as what I argue, & hopefully others do the same.
Conclusion
Perception takes patience & a mindset to learn about others like Roy Wood Jr.
Excuse the language of some of the clips.
said & it’s a never-ending process to do in our lifetime because at the end of the day not everyone or everything is what you see and actually takes not just looking at something for face value. It reminds me of the song “Stronger” by Clean Bandit people have this idea & perception of how people should act feel & do however sometimes people because of their perspectives and experiences just look at the norm & do things outside of that because they are more effective and successful no matter how they are perceived.
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