Lately I’ve been reflecting on the word “other” as a verb: “to view or treat (a person or group of people) as intrinsically different from and alien to oneself.”
It seems to me that “othering” is a behavior that is on the increase among people who I think really ought to know better; namely, friends and colleagues that I know and love. These are people with intelligent minds and big hearts, who are falling into the trap of turning those they disagree with into the “other.”
Of course, once we’ve turned someone into the “other,” we feel justified in talking to and about them in a way that mutes our empathy, dims our compassion, and diminishes our humanity.
This is not the way forward!
I found the following in a blog post as I was reading up about this. As a self-described “liberal,” I found it rather sobering:
“Interestingly enough, some argue that liberals’ use of “other” as a verb actually contributes to political othering by alienating conservatives. In a recent piece for Commentary magazine titled “The Resistance’s Hat Trick — ‘Othering’ for beginners,” Christine Rosen wrote, “‘Othering’ is a term favored by the left … Trump uses dehumanizing rhetoric to discuss immigrants; the left parries with ‘othering’ rhetoric about MAGA-hat wearing Trump voters. And round and round the cycle goes. It’s great for clickbait and Twitter wars, but terrible for healthy debate.“
From New Verb Provides an ‘Other’ Perspective by Rob Kyff
We can do better than this; we need to do better than this; we must do better than this!
