Why do people continually label or “other” individuals who are different?!
“Othering” people who look or act different from you is not going to benefit anyone.
We currently live in a time where there is a lot of unity among people as well as a lot of divide. There is a strong fight with a goal towards equality for people from all sorts of backgrounds. Individuals from minority groups are rising up to be heard, and the stand people are taking is a beautiful thing to witness. So many terms like solidarity, sisterhood, empowered, love, and equality are being used in these protests and marches, and they make me wonder why? What causes such a divide to require words like these to be slogans for what should be fundamental to human existence? The more I thought about this, the more I realized that although there is a great push for unity, there is also a great resistance to the equality that so many are yearning.
This concept of “other” that people who are not like you are so extremely different and not relatable is what breaks us, and keeps us from growing into the country we claim to be; accepting of everyone and embracing differences. We have become the country with a leader who condones othering individuals, for their country of origin, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, gender identification, religion, and language spoken. People are profiled for these same things, arrested unfairly, killed because they were thought to be people from a different culture, kicked off of their flights, and denied entrance to a country where they were granted Visas. This us verses them idea is where racism, sexism, ageism stems from, oppresses people and causes groups of people to feel uncomfortable with who they are, when in reality they have absolutely no reason to feel that way.
What is “acceptable” or “American” is frequently seen in people of power, people who have the say so, and these people are often white heterosexual men. If we look back in history and look at when feminism took off in the 1960s and 1970s, feminism was not for everyone then either like bell hooks talks about in her book “Feminism is for Everybody.” Feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment was primarily for the white woman, once again leaving behind other minority groups. Why is a person who does not look “white” always asked where they are from, inferring they are not an American citizen. Why are people who speak other languages in our “melting pot” country always degraded and asked to stop speaking their language because “They are in America now.”? Who made this fair or acceptable?!
This ties back to people feeling different. Why should people in this country be hyperaware of their status or be limited and identified into specific groups by how they look or act. This then introduces the Mestiza concept. This mestiza concept is applicable to so many individuals who belong to multiple cultures. It is the awareness and exploration of the fusion of different cultures seen in one individual. It is bordering on either side of a duality, whether it is embracing two different cultures, or sexualities like the Chicana cultural and feminist theorist Gloria E. Anzaldua.
A persons self image verses how the world sees them, probably rarely lines up perfectly. Unfortunately, this may apply with gender identification, how one should identify or act culturally, the language that should be spoken and so much more. People are so stuck in the categories they have been taught their whole lives, that if someone strays from what they can easily categorize, it makes people ignorantly uncomfortable, scared, and sometimes even hostile.
Everything else put aside, embracing who people are and how they identify has become more and more difficult to deal with. Finding a place where you belong has been made harder with what Donald Trump embodies and represents. It may be the root of people’s anxiety, fear, identity struggles, and feelings of being an outcast. This concept of not being easily categorized, or not fitting into the culture of where you are is absurd, especially in the United States, more specifically in Southern California, one of the most culturally diverse parts of the Country.
As people we have an obligation to hold people to better standards. We must lead by example, we must demand that each person be embraced fully for who they are, and their potential and their contribution to society rather than limit people because of differences they may have. The differences after all, are what have allowed us to learn so much about other and ourselves. In protest, the goal usually is to change something for better, to uphold moral obligations and better the world for not only yourself, but for those around you, and the future generations. In upholding these moral standards does solidarity, empowerment, love and equality come into fruition.
