How Does Culture Influence Perception?

“You’re Greek, You Dance!” Papouli from Full House once said excitingly as he taught his granddaughter a traditional Greek Dance. In many ways one's culture can have an influence on the way they view others and the world, some different examples are ethnicity, the social normalities, and your family's influence on your past.

Ethnicity plays a huge part on a person's view of the world around them and themselves. In the Poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, the speaker explains the complications of being part Mexican and living in America. “their eyes say, You may speak Spanish, but you're not like me”, this excerpt shows that the judgement that other cultures and races place on people who are different can change how you view things, even if your ethnical background is the same.

In America, everybody is expected to be the same. Dress the same, eat the same foods, even act the same. The social Normality that people follow blindly has a huge impact on the way we view people and the world around us. It expands into racism, sexism, and many other cultural phobias . In the passage, An Indian Father’s Plea the father, Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzly Bear), writes a letter to his son's American teacher. “...He came home crying and saying he wants to have his hair cut. He said he doesn't have any friends at school because they make fun of his long hair”. Wind Wolf was so concerned about fitting in with the group to make friends he forgets to embrace his culture and ethnicity. Later in the story, Wind Wolf experiences his first encounter with racism, “Because you are Indians and we are white, and I don't want my kids growing up with your kind of people.”. After finally making a friend at school Wind Wolf is rejected time to hang out with him due solely to the fact that he is an Indian.

Your family influences many things in your life. You develop a base for all your opinions from them. Political