Othering: a strange word, an awful action

As a young white kid during World War II, I remember propaganda cartoons about Japanese soldiers. They were short, yellow-skinned, wearing glasses over enlarged oriental eyes, with buck teeth like a comic squirrel. They were not called Japanese.  They were “Japs” or Nips.”  They had been “othered.” I knew no actual Japanese people in Philadelphia – an important point.

Othering is a way to deprive your supposed enemies of their humanity. Doesn’t matter who they are: women, Republicans, Democrats, you name it. First you reduce them to stereotypes, and then systematically demonize them. The word “othering” may be new, but the process has gone on throughout history as far back as one can trace. In some instances, it led to slavery; think Egyptians and Hebrews, or Americans and Africans who were forcibly removed from their homelands. Remember the old cartoons about Black people: big heads, big lips, stupid speech patterns? Little Black Sambo? This process of othering has gone on a long time, sometimes with cultural approval from those in charge.

We invent ways to dehumanize those we isolate and ostracize because they are different from us in race or religion or sex or politics. Know this: we want to be different because we consider ourselves superior. Think Nazi Germany, where anyone not “pure Aryan” was deprived of humanity: gypsies, mentally challenged, physically impaired, homosexuals and, of course, the Jews. All these people were demonized to deny them, eventually, the right to live. If you need a reminder of cruelty to physically impaired people, check out the short film “Forgive us our Trespasses” on Netflix.

Al Hirschfeld was a legendary caricaturist regularly featured in the New York Times. I mention this for contrast: Caricature is a form of flattery, and usually involves only one subject, although it does involve exaggeration of physical aspects, usually facial features. Caricature is not the same thing as the cartoon images of Japanese people I knew in childhood. Caricature is positive; those cartoon images were negative. The first is based on genuine admiration, the second on abject hatred. The first is a humorous depiction, the second a pictorial form of othering.

Construct an image of the other by lumping them into a preconceived set of images or beliefs that you have invented, based on previous prejudices. For example, if you hate “Islam” generically based on hearsay or prejudice, you will dump every anti-Muslim trope you know on the next available Muslim. This creates an unbridgeable gap because you control the rules of discourse. You don't allow such persons to define themselves. You tell them who they are; you don’t allow them the dignity of telling you who they are. You feel free to dump every stereotype and cartoon image of Islam on them. This serves only to isolate them, destroys the relationship, and enables you to feel smug because they fit your image of everything you find detestable in Islam.

Pursued on an individual level, othering destroys relationships and persons; pursued on a collective level it destroys democracy and nations. It’s a very dangerous and toxic act, and we see it roundabout us everywhere these days in America, sad to say. It’s well beyond the hour when we should be asking ourselves if we really want to pursue such a course of action about individual people and whole groups whom we “other.” To continue will be catastrophic for our future as a united people. Who do you waste time “othering”?  It’s time to affirm our common humanity rather than trash others.

Fr. Gabriel Rochelle is a retired Orthodox Christian priest. Contact him at gabrielcroch@aol.com.