Race In our modern world, people develop false perceptions of others that are sometimes based on learned behaviors, or things that they have witnessed in life. These false perceptions continue to dominate the contemporary world at a time when societies are becoming more diverse. Modern societies across the globe comprise of people from different nationalities, races, and ethnic backgrounds. The diversity has had positive impacts since it contributes to increased interconnectedness of people from different parts of the world including the remote parts. However, diversity is also associated with some negative impacts that translate to its discontents, particularly in relation to the development of false perceptions of others. As globalization continues to dominate today’s world, its important to examine these false perceptions and develop measures to address them in order to promote unity in modern societies. This paper discusses a false perception people have in life and how those beliefs extend from individual attributes or factors.

A False Perception

An individual’s growth and development is characterized by development of perceptions about others that could either be true or false. Perception is a powerful tool that creates a person’s truth through determining his/her beliefs and actions upon that belief. In essence, perception not only determines an individual’s view of life and others, but also influences his/her behavior. Consequently, when an individual refuse to allow flexibility in his/her perceptions, he/she closes his/her mind to possibility and even truth in some cases. People treat others and behave in certain ways based on the perceptions they have about life and other people. In light of the increased diversity of the modern society, people have continued to develop false perceptions about others based on their experiences in life and learned behaviors.

An example of a false perception that people have in life is racial categorization that...

Even though the modern world is increasingly diverse, racial categorization is a false perception that has continued to dominates societies, particularly in the United States. Racial categorization continues to dominate modern societies despite the fact that race and gender are social constructions rather than physical attributes. Racial categorization has in turn created racial tensions, which have affected how people from certain races treat others from different races. At the center of racial categorization is the belief that whites are superior than people from other races such as Hispanics, Indians, and blacks. The consideration of whites as superior is rooted in the history of the United States, particularly during slavery. While numerous efforts have been undertaken to deal with racial tensions and discrimination, racial categorization is a false perception people have in life.
The 2005 film, Crash, highlights this negative false perception through portraying the struggles of the district attorney of L.A. to find an African American he can reward publicly in order to salvage his public image among African American voters. The district attorney identifies a certain “black” firefighter who was recently heroic in his job. However, while the district attorney is told that the firefighter is actually Iraqi, he proceeds with his plans by convincing himself that he looks black. Therefore, this district attorney makes his decision about the firefighter based on his physical appearance instead of his (the firefighter) real cultural or national heritage. The movie also has another scene of racial categorization in which a detective refers to his lover as Mexican. According to the detective, his lover is Mexican because of her physical attributes rather than actual cultural or national heritage. On the contrary, the detective’s lover has no Mexican heritage and is neither Mexican since her father is…