Essay#3

Cody Otero
5 March 2009
Do You Perceive Me?
People all perceive others differently. One person might see me and think something entirely different from someone else. People see what they want to see in life. People can think I’m a tall young man who seems nice enough, or they can see a giant ogre of a man who seems menacingly quiet. In life, people get what they want to get. If someone sees and treats another person like an ogre that is probably what they are going to get. People base their perception of me on their past experience and their perception of people who are like me. As a whole people perceive me as a big tall white male. This perception, in my opinion, is fair, but they should not associate me with a certain group or person who has similar features. I am an individual, so a person’s perception of me should be of me as an individual. The problem with perception is when people see others they automatically draw comparisons. They find similarities between the person they see and someone else they have seen or had past experiences with.

People perceive me as being big and strong. This perception has negatives and positives. One positive I found was I never got picked on growing up in school. The main reason for this is the perception that I was so much bigger and stronger than the other kids at school. A bully looks for a person who they perceive as being the least threatening. If they perceived me as being big and strong they would avoid me and find others to pick on. When I was younger I wasn’t aware of how big I was compared to the other kids. I was probably bigger and stronger than the bullies, but their perception that I a threat was false. As a kid I never would have used my size against someone. As I got older I found the same perception which had gotten me out of conflicts was now getting me into them. Especially in sports, kids would use unnecessary force in order to show they were as tough as me. In many situations kids would act aggressive towards me purely based on my size. Based on their own thoughts they decided that I was going to be tough because I was big. They thought they had to be extra tough because I was going to be. They took action against me solely based of their perception of other big people, not on me as an individual. Another negative with being perceived as being big and strong may be considered to be petty or juvenile, but having to lift heavy furniture is not my idea of a fun time. Why I am the families designated washing machine mover?

I am also seen, by almost everyone, as a white male. I hate I am perceived as a white male. I hate I am perceived differently from someone else, solely based on the fact my skin is white. I hate race is even a thought when people see each other. Society teaches a person to separate others into groups based on his or her perceptions. Isn’t it odd there are statistics about the percent of a certain race in a country? Why would anyone ever need to know those statistics? The only reason they would group large numbers of people like this together would be to make a general statement about those people as a group. I am a percentage. I have to always be associated with white people and the things they have done. I have to be separated from my fellow man because people see my skin color. A person who perceives me as a white male is not truly seeing me. They are seeing every stereotypical thing they can think of about the white race. It is not fair to anyone of any race, to be put into a group because of perceptions about race. No one can see me, they see my skin and think they know, but they can’t see me.