"Walk a Mile in My Shoes" Reflection Paper

America is often referred to as a melting pot, a metaphor that attributes American identity to coercive assimilation. Recently, America has been more accurately described as a tossed salad, a positive metaphor that promotes the many flavors of American culture, and the benefits they provide to our unified society. The song, “Walk a Mile In My Shoes,” by Joe South & the Believers discusses how we can incorporate this theory by understanding others through basic communication and reaping the benefits of our differences. “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” illustrates how we as individuals make false judgments by forming impressions based on looks and self

In society, we often judge others as soon as we meet them. Many times, our first impressions are based on looks and possessions. In the third verse, the individual is being judged by his appearance. He says, “And yet we spend the day throwing stones at one another cause I don’t think or wear my hair the same way you do." This type of judgment is an example of impression formation theory. The two characters are forming basic conclusions about one another based on physical qualities. Many times this is followed by the development of constructs, bipolar qualities that we use to classify people. In this situation, the construct is likely “ugly.” Unfortunately, I have experienced this many times in my life. I am known for having a “chronic bitch face.” Many people who I am now friends with tell me they were scared to talk to me because they associated me with a construct of “mean.” However, now that they have spoken to me and gotten to know me, they have dismissed their conclusions. We form these assumptions about people to reduce our uncertainty. This is known as the uncertainty reduction theory. By making assumptions we can form predictions about how are social interactions will play out. The judgments we make are often wrong and can hurt others.

Joe South offers a solution to these problems by through the chorus. He...