According to Saeed A. Khan’s paper titled ‘Race’ and Difference: Orientalism and Western Concepts, ‘the Other’ is defined in Western discourse as “different, inferior and worthy of subjection to colonialism, while simultaneously praising aspects of the exotic, the erotic and primitive.” The original theory of the Other was coined as something that all humans inherently do to define the self. When it came to Colonialism, the West needed to define the Other. Others were those whom the West controlled or wanted to control. Colonialism saw the rise of Race theory and Orientalism, with the effort of explaining how the “weaker” sex was weaker and why certain religions were “wrong” compared to White Christianity. [note: Western Christianity was golden but non-Western Christians were not equal to those branching out of Western tradition.] Orientalism and Racism came about to justify the Othering of peoples, expressing Europeans superiority over the Others.
Famous men like Darwin, Marx, Rousseau, Malthus, and Huxley, were some of the leading scholars on the ideas of Othering and supported Orientalism and race differences. Karl Marx believed that the imperialist work in Asia was justified because Asians were inferior and worthy of oppression. Another Western scholar considered Black individuals to be a “product of social devolution”. Thomas Jefferson believed that the Black man was biologically inferior to the White man. The Victorians to quite recently believed that the races had different head sizes. Othering moves onto more modern aspects in both race relationships and in Islamophobia.
Othering allowed the Nazis to gain control. It is also a dangerous theory that twines itself into Nationalism, where anything other than one’s own self is wrong. What someone considers it’s self, changes with time and place. Countries like France will claim that it’s French culture is to eat pig and create school laws to enforce pork eating upon Jewish, Muslim, Vegetarian, Vegan, and etc children. Othering allows people to create stark differences between “us” and “them”. Othering is telling the Self that Sharia law is creeping upon the Self. Christianity or Lacite or Secularism is at stake because the Muslims will change the self to their self. Othering is about creating false facts or more particularly creating a narrative that protects the Self over the Other. It can take a few correct facts such as 9/11 or some other horrible attack, twist it into a narrative that all people who are Arab, South Asian, Muslim, or something like it are so different from the self that they must be dealt with. There is no room for reasoning or understanding in this type of narrative because the self is seen as the main character of the story, and the other is the bad guy.
On top of needing to justify acts such as invading Iraq, genocide, nationalism, colonialism, war, and etc, othering can be further fueled by fear. The movie A Single Man sums up it:” Fear, after all, is our real enemy. Fear is taking over our world. Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. Its how politicians peddle policy and how Madison Avenue sells us things that we don’t need. Think about it. Fear that was going to be attacked, fear that there are communists lurking around every corner, fear that some little Caribbean country that doesn’t believe in our way of life poses a threat to us. Fear that black culture may take over the world. Fear of Elvis Presley’s hips. Well, maybe that one is a real fear. Fear that our bad breath might ruin our friendships…fear of growing old and being alone.” Governments, politicians, Far-Righters, Far-lefters, and etc create fear about something through media framing to further their own agenda. So Othering in any form of politics, whether that be from your pastor or school principal or president creates a “fear” or an “anxiety” to formulate and backup their own agenda. By othering the Black person, Whites justified slavery of an entire race. They justified taking over nations and subjecting the people to cultural erosion and etc.
While Othering does not have to be bad or wrong, after all, we all Other our parents as children. We treat the adults in our adolescent life as sub-human to justify their actions and to justify our own selfish child selves wants and needs. The main problem with Othering is when we use it to justify gross actions, something that all sides are guilty of.