Why Does Graffiti Have a Negative Cognition?

Growing up I had the privilege to see artwork almost on every wall I passed by. I saw artwork that mainly related to the latino or hispanic culture, my neighborhood Little village is known for having Hispanic murals. I did not only see artwork just in my neighborhood I also saw it all over my city, I saw it even more on the CTA. Artwork on walls has always fascinated me, I was amazed at how someone's hand can create something so colorful and intriguing. When I say art work I mean it as Murals, Street Art and especially graffiti. Being exposed to all of this amazing work it inspired me to get into graffiti. Fast forward to today I have been a graffiti writer for about 6 years now. Being involved in this artform i often get angry when I hear someone categorize graffiti and street art as a criminal activity, like if it was on the same level as murdering someone. Ever since I started my graffiti way of life I have asked myself numerous times why do people like to exaggerate the criminality level of graffiti or street art?
One reason why people might demoralize graffiti and street art is because it is a form of vandalism. It is hard to say that anyone wants graffiti written all over their walls on their homes, But then again it does bring a healthy color vibrancy to the neighborhood or city . Another reason why people might call out these artforms as extreme criminal activity is because it is often seen as being tied to gang activity, when in fact graffiti itself and gang graffiti are totally different things. One other reason might because when people see graffiti they might imagine a young guy or girl who is ruthless, does not care for the law or just a pure delinquent. People have the right to imagine such things when they see graffiti. In fact most graffiti writers or street artists are delinquent, but again one can not judge by what they see on the surface because there are fathers, mothers and even college students out there painting a wall who have never had a run in with the law in their lives.
If we all took a second and stepped back to think about why do people like to discourage graffiti and streetart, we might find that most of these speculations are not valid. If people took the time to do so they might find that graffiti and street art is not all that bad. Yes there are criminal aspects to these artforms, but there are ways around it to make it legal work and if people looked at it from a more artistic perspective they might come to conclude that it is not much a criminal activity at all, but rather a form of art.

Working at Dunkin

It would have never occurred to me that I would one day end up working at Dunkin Donuts. Especially since I don't like coffeee, why would I be around coffee all day right? Well humorously enough I did end up there. I got the job because my friend Ricky, who is also a Lewis student, suggested I should go apply at his job at dunkin. Being in the market for a job and really needing one more than before I found time to go apply. I applied, got an interview and got hired. After numerous attempts of trying to get jobs at other places and not getting a call back or at least an email back I finally got myself a real job. Fast foward about a year later to today I'm still there. I have come to learn that this job has its pros, but then again it's cons. Some might say the cons out weigh the pros, but honestly I feel it's up to how well built someone's fortitude is. I know it might sound a bit conceited to say, but working at Dunkin is not really for everybody. On top of that if can vary between stores, but at my shop I feel like we get so much pressure put on us employees, in other words so much is expected from so little. From my time being there I have met people who only lasted at most 3 or 4 months before they said they couldn't take it anymore and quit their jobs. There's pressure from the managers, customers, Co workers and all of that mixed together in the air isn't healthy. I can recall when I first started the job there were these two female Co workers who can possibly be the worst Co workers someone can have. One of them was a shift leader and she would always be yelling and be on your back, she would just keep her eyes out for the next fumble you would do to call you out. I remember one day she told me "you sucked today" and that whole day I was thinking to myself that I was working hard and what she said totally flipped me over. The other lady was a bit the same with the yelling, but she was just annoying. She was way to bossy and expected to much, especially from me even though I was new on the job. Aside that the customers we get sometimes are really something else. I won't go into to much detail with this because I can write a whole book about this topic, but I have dealt with some of the worst people i have ever met in my life. I have never been talked to the way these people were talking me to or treated. This might be true for people who work in the food industry, but just sad because we try to be nice to our customers and we get that one bad apple that has to spoil everything. For example, a couple months ago I was having a good day at work until i got a really rude guy come up at the drive through window. Just because I accidentally gave him back the wrong change ,which was short about 30 cents, he questioned me if I ever finished High School. What he said really got me mad and it stuck with me because it was something so mean and I've never had anyone say something so mean to me before. Over time I learned to deal with rude customers, without being rude of course, but just enough emotion for them to get the idea that they got me upset. Probably the only real pros is that I met good people who became my friends and I get a nice little fat check on every second Friday. Despite that I am already looking for a new job, I don't want to stay in Dunkin for years like other people who are already there.