Does it Really Take One to Know One?

I personally believe that you don’t have to “be” someone in order to “know” someone and understand them. Because being one may not be sufficient for knowing one. If to know one is to have the same experiences as one, and if to be one is to have the experiences of one, then it seems that by being one you know one. But reflection will show that being one is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for knowing one. We should also take into consideration the idea of shadowing—when we shadow someone, we enter their daily lives and observe what they experience. Through an open mind, we can contrast their experiences with our own and create an idea as to what they are feeling. The difference of having experience in something and knowing the experience of something is that when you have experience of something you understand it through your own experiences and understand, but when you know of an experience it is achieved by understanding someone else’s experiences. Knowledge of what we are experiencing always involves an interpretation of these experiences.

This is why the media is able to create and maintain stereotypes; because viewers fail to realize that knowing an experience requires more than simply having it, knowing implies being able to identify, describe, and explain, this something that the media is unable to do is. Without an open mind, people will believe what the media shows them as being the truth about other cultures because they are not willing to experience multiculturalism for themselves. They settle for what the media portrays to be the truth about other cultures. Stereotypes in the media have been created and practiced in it for as long as the media itself has existed. Of course a stereotype is a way of thinking about a person or group in a way that maybe false. Having this generalization about a person or group, the media can cause us to be narrow minded about making fair judgments of people or situations. The media often creates and maintains stereotypes, but these stereotypes can lead to discrimination. Stereotypes form ideas within society by the media, which causes people to believe that the media holds truth in real life. This is why the media is an intimidating force that has taken the stereotypes of society, the way people view themselves and others, and have turned them into delusions in which people actually believe.

Getting to know people face-to-face helps us break down negative images. Personally I believe that when you are on the inside you see what you want to see, yet someone from the outside sees things that you ignore or miss. In order to see who we really are, we have to see how others look at us. Their opinions help us understand our own identity. We have one opinion as to whom we are, but to another person they may see us in a different light. Even if their understanding of who we are contrasts to our own opinion, we still need to take theirs into consideration.