Are We There Yet? vol. 235
If you haven’t yet seen American Fiction, I highly recommend it. In one scene, Jeffrey Wright’s character, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is talking to his girlfriend, Coraline, played by Erika Anderson. Coraline is a public defender, and Monk is just getting to know her. He asks how she feels about defending guilty people. She responds that she loves it and that she knows they’re all guilty. “But that’s okay. People are more than their worst deed.”
I suspect that none of us would want to be judged based on our worst moments. Our brains are wired to make pretty quick decisions based on early impressions. In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Danny Kahneman wrote about cognitive processing and “Systems 1 and 2.” System 1 is fast, automatic, and intuitive. System 2 is slow, deliberate, and conscious and more related to complex problem solving. The System 1 part of our brains likely developed for avoiding threats where one doesn’t have the time to think about the situation but needs to take quick action. However, our System 1 reactions have reached much further than just addressing threats. We are constantly making judgments based on first impressions, which brings me back to the quote above that people are more than their worst deeds.
I often find myself using System 1 to make judgments about people I meet based on that first, very quick interaction or a story that I have heard about a person. However, System 2 seems more appropriate for building relationships. In David Brooks’ book, How To Know A Person, he talks about a friend of his, Jimmy Dorrell, who looks at every person he meets as someone who was created in the image of God. He’s basically making a choice to assume the good in all people rather than drawing conclusions without evidence.
I’m trying to emulate that behavior of starting from a clean slate and assuming the good. It won’t be easy because our brains appear to have developed to judge based on early impressions, and our society seems to push us to quick judgments.
Take care and stay safe.
MOVIE:
American Fiction
Based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, American Fiction is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture's obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish "Black" book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Learn more about Bob Len here.
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