“You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms with the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.”
― The Breakfast Club
Othering is defined as “the act of treating someone as though they are not part of a group and are different in some way.” It divides people into handy little subgroups under manmade labels and is a process used by those in authority to devalue, undermine, and dehumanize people groups on big-scale levels (genocide) and on small-scale levels (small town cliques). Once a group has been dehumanized, it’s not that hard to make the psychological leap to abuse, attack, demonize and denigrate the “other” group.
A brief scroll through the history of mankind demonstrates that “othering” has been the root of the worst evils perpetuated by humans against other humans, from slavery to the Spanish Inquisition to the Holocaust. It’s occurring today on various levels around the globe.
A short review of your personal history likely shows the same pattern. You may have been bullied, or you may have been a bully. You may have been pigeonholed into a particular social subgroup in high school, only to go off to college and discover your label was woefully inadequate for a complete person (because no human being fits under just one label).
It’s normal, and probably healthy, to seek out groups with whom we share commonalities, especially in times of trouble. We can provide and receive support, comfort, and wise counsel from those who’ve walked the same path.
Othering is a two-step process. It starts with looking at differences instead of similarities. Step two is to identify that group as inferior and adopting an “us v. them” mentality. Now give a particular group or leader a thirst for power and control, and othering takes on dangerous overtones.
What’s the alternative? The lesson iterated by the students in The Breakfast Club… we all have far more in common than anything that separates us, and those commonalities are so much more important and valuable than the superficial things we let polarize us.