In our discussions over the past few weeks I found myself taking away the most from our conversation about “learned perception” from Linda Martin Alcoffs’ “Towards a Phenomenology of Racial Embodiment”. What stood out to me was the idea that seeing is not neutral. The way we perceive others is often influenced by ideas which we have learned throughout our lives. I assumed that even physical characteristics which seem like objective truths are usually perceived neutrally, but this is not the case.

We do not simply see a person and neutrally record what is physically there. What we see and how we interpret it are shaped entirely by what we have already learned.  These insights are developed over the course of a lifetime and come from culture, history, media, stereotypes, and previous experiences. In other words, there is no perception of what is visible that is completely free of value. Before we even consciously interpret what we see we have already learned to associate certain appearances with particular ideas. This becomes especially important when discussing race because racial stereotypes can influence how we perceive and interpret people before we know anything about them as individuals. 

Learned perceptual practice can be applied to many racist incidents. The key is to ask: How did existing insights affect what people believed they were seeing? 

The murder of Emmett Till demonstrates how these learned racial meanings can have devastating consequences. Emmet Till was kidnapped and murdered after being accused of behaving inappropriately towards a white woman. The assumption of guilt was derived from the cultural idea that Black men and boys are sexual threats to White women. As a result, instead of being perceived as a young Black boy, he was viewed through the racist stereotype, making him dangerous and threatening. 

Another example arises in the killings of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery. Two similar situations in which Black men are viewed as threats while engaging in ordinary activities. Martin was walking through a neighborhood, while Arbery was jogging through one. Neither’s actions were inherently suspicious, yet both were perceived through assumptions that connected Black men to danger and criminal behavior. These cases demonstrate learned perceptual practice because what was physically visible was given meaning through existing stereotypes. It was not their race that made their actions threatening but instead learned ideas about Black men which influenced how those actions were interpreted.

Essentially, we do not see first and assign meaning afterward. What we have already learned influences the act of seeing itself. In this way, seeing is not neutral because what we perceive is shaped by the meanings, values, and assumptions we have already learned.