John a. powell and Stephen Menendian
Othering is a very interesting topic and certainly the reading had a lot that stood out. The thing that stood out to me the most was the part about the unconscious bias and the MRI scans that monitor the feelings of individuals to pain experienced by others. The study found that people had more empathy and feelings towards same race. This is expected because you can relate much more to those feeling pain and could even imagine yourself feeling that pain. However what’s interesting and quite scary is that when people who were marginalized, facing othering, were used the MRI scans showed there was no recognition of these marginalized people. Where was the humanity and the feelings of empathy across different races and peoples of differences? It is a very concerning finding because it suggests that perhaps individuals would not help a marginalized person in danger because they do not recognize them as humans or they do not recognize their pain. It is quite alarming to find that othering can be this dangerous to the point where humanity is being questioned.
The other thing that caught my attention was the quote “commentators refer to Iislamophobia or ethnocentrism as “racism” although religion and ethnicity are not racial categories. This caught my attention because I think it shows how there is very little understanding now of racism and any discrimination is now put under this umbrella “racism” which I feel certainly makes it very difficult to address the problem of racism because we no longer know what racism is. How can we make progress with racism if many are not educated on the topic?
I do relate a lot to othering and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to stereotyping and generalizing groups of people. with individuals I feel it is easier because after an interaction you it’s quite clear what you feel however for unknowns or groups it tends to be different. For me I like to keep myself away from individuals that are not satisfied in their life, that have no sense of appreciation for what they have. Generally speaking, there is not a definitive characteristic that unites these individuals such as race or gender, however with finance being extremally important in peoples lies, you can argue that the less fortunate will be less satisfied. This generalization is definitely not true also there are many wealthy individuals who are also very unsatisfied. This generalizing comes from my fear of “hasad” an Arabic word for bad luck or misfortune because of people’s bad energy towards my privileges. Although I can hide that I am well off financially I feel one way or another it will come out and I do not like to be around such people, rich or poor, because of their attitude towards the subject. An important thing to not is that this is not focused on finance. I feel this when it comes to many things, for example my ability to play sports, my education and many more. With the unsatisfied individuals I fear that they do not have good intentions and therefore you can never know how they feel about you or if they are wishing bad upon you. I think unsatisfaction stems from culture and media because good upbringing teaches you to value what you have while the media pushes people towards materialistic thinking. Therefore, with weak upbringing and media individuals can fall victim to this problem. Experiences of ‘hasad’ are many but one that definitely sticks is when I got a new car I showed it to my friends and to those close. I do not know how to explain it but I could sense a bad vibe from one particular individual towards my happiness and the new car, perhaps because they hadn’t gotten a new car yet and therefore had not had this opportunity. Alhamdulillah 2 or 3 days later while parked, not even in the driving, someone bumped my car and damaged the care. I do not blame that friend directly but I definitely feel they may have had a part in it. There are many more examples but I feel one sums up the general idea.
Now I would like to consider the solutions and assess their effectiveness. Assimilation I feel would not work because it will need a lot of time in order to erase all the knowledge and cultural differences especially as they are constantly developing, furthermore a large part of many people’s identities comes from their culture and the knowledge gathered by being in that culture therefore erasing it cannot work because what makes them who they are and what is dictating their marginalization. It will take an extremely long time, many decades in fact because you cannot immediately change the beliefs and the ideas of an entire group, therefore it may not be a very good approach to the problem. In relation to my “othering” I do believe that assimilation may work more effectively especially since it
Secessionism is definitely not a solution to othering nor is segregation. Both of the approaches do not directly deal with the problem; however, they are kicking the can down the road. The problem will still exist and addressing it will continue to get postponed. In the short run it can be effective in reducing tensions but will not deal with the problem. For my example where I consider the problem more from the other individual’s side I would definitely not mind us being segregated because it means less worrying from my side and being more free.
Finally, I feel belongingness can be the most effective approach to the problem of othering because making everyone feel united and part of the community despite their differences. It will not only reduce the tensions however I feel it can be effective in developing a good relationship between opposite groups in the community. Unlike assimilation it will not damage the culture of the outgroups but will celebrate that difference. It will not take long to implement this strategy because making people feel included can work extremely fast especially with many aiming for equality. For my example I feel belongingness is not very applicable because making those unsatisfied individuals feel belonging will not solve their core problem and therefore will not solve my desire to stay away. I feel this may be one of the very little examples of othering that cannot be addressed or solved through these strategies because it encompasses more than just differences of culture like the examples given in the article.
The Ludi Experience 