Often, those who tread off the beaten path are misunderstood or mischaracterized and so we asked folks from the community to reflect and tell us about the times they’ve been misunderstood or mischaracterized.

Morgane Freeman

As a Black woman in the plant-based space, it’s not the vegan community that isn’t always welcoming, it’s people that I have met that learn I am a Vegan Food Blogger. I am usually met with a lot of questions, starting with how do I get my protein, or what do I even eat? I get that last one A LOT. I think the biggest misunderstanding in the work I do, is my why? I wasn’t always a plant-based person, but after health issues, I learned about the benefits of eating less (or in my case, no) meat and more veggies, legumes, and whole grains. Read more>>

Caleb Nelson

Yes, I feel like my work is often misunderstood and tends to make the viewer feel uncomfortable or weirded out. Many people think photographers just do picture of landscapes, weddings, animals, etc…. Everyday things you could say. I don’t like to consider myself a photographer I want to be known as an artist as my photography has a lot of different Art medias infused into it. What I think people misunderstand about my work and find to be strange is that I often use full face covering masks or have some type of human like creature in my work. Read more>>

Dave Glass

Since my early days growing up in the underground punk, hardcore, thrash metal. skateboarding scene, in the 80 vilified how much I was misunderstood finding tribe in the fringes of society. Parents, teachers, cops, religious leaders, most authority figures, feared anything outside the mainstream that challenged their belief system. Our music was furious, full of teen angst, our art was aggressive and warped, and we dressed anti fashion deconstructing most of our clothing D.I.Y. style. To this day some of my work is misunderstood and mischaracterized. Read more>>

Kramer Deans

Yes, I do feel like my work as a craft beer influencer can and is mischaracterized from people thinking I just drink beer all day to Black people thinking drinking craft beer is for white people. I remember taking my mother to the brewery I worked at and she didn’t realize you can sit and relax and have some food at the brewery while sipping your favorite brew. I learned that there is so much work to do to educate the Black community about craft beer and there isn’t a lot of resources readily accessible for my community from beer being available in the predominantly Black areas of town to understanding the true history of beer. Read more>>

Ruby Juu

Being misunderstood is never a thing of the past for me. When I first started out doing Radio/Podcasting work, a lot of people took my craft as me being messy because I was so passionate about it. So here is what I do as a Podcaster / Radio personality. I report on celebrity gossip and I add my own little twist with it to make it comical, sometimes the gossip is too serious. When the gossip is too serious I leave it as is. Read more>>

Hypno Hoe

I feel like in this digital age we live in , your online footprint holds more weight than you’re actual real life presence, actions, character. I havent always been good at this & I have re-branded myself many times, attempting to find the most suitable name for my invisible, artistic soul . I used to have a very limited view of myself as a creator, I was very afraid of embracing & displaying my performative, musical & ethereal nature. The more I realize and fulfill my purpose through my new artistic endeavors, the more I open to misjudgments of my “motivations” for making content, on social media, Read more>>

CINNAMON JOHNSON

As a photographer, being mischaraterized is pretty constant. As a niche portrait photographer, being mischaracterized only happens before being introduced to my work. Once I show someone images of what I do and describe my focus, pretty much everyone “gets it”. Photography exists in this gray area as anyone with a camera is a photographer. I think people generally think of a photographer as a person with a nice camera. Read more>>

Heather Ward

There are a lot of misconceptions about belly dance among the general public – what it is, where it comes from, its history, and more. In the US, at least, “belly dancer” implies a pretty girl dressed up like Princess Jasmine, jiggling her hips and rolling her belly in order to entice and titillate the men in her audience. A lot of Americans do not realize that belly dance is in fact a cultural dance whose main variants originate in the Middle East and North Africa. And most Americans have no idea that in the cultures of origin, this is a dance that is practiced socially by all ages and genders. Read more>>