In reading about the idea of dealing with the "Other", I was reminded of the reading we did a few years back in Dr. Cummings' Native Media and Cultural Studies class by Edward Said (and then in every anthropology course I've taken since then). His book, "Orientalism", is perhaps the most well known piece that addresses the concept of "othering". Othering is the practice of treating a person/group of people/culture as intrinsically different from your own self or culture. Orientalism itself is the patronizing attitude of the west towards the east, in the simplest terms.
According to Said, "Orientalism is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power."
Othering goes hand in hand with power. By demeaning other cultures, people gain control over them. To stereotype and reduce to sameness is to take away elements of humanity from that group of people, and therefore to see them as less than yourself. To eroticize a culture is to take away their power as well, and the west has a tendency to do this to the east.
Hebdige talks about this othering as "reducing to sameness". While the idea of preserving culture and if it’s even possible is a conversation for another time, the discussion here is that the fear of the unknown is often combated by just erasing all the elements that lead to discomfort. It’s the same argument as saying “I don’t see color”; instead of acknowledging the differences in people’s experiences that have to do with their indemnity, we choose not to engage in critically analyzing the real issue, instead claiming that ignoring the issue will return us to a state where it never existed in the first place. Whether using “othering” to reduce a culture or to reduce its struggles, it’s an ineffective way to push away discomfort and leads to more harm than good, even if it yields a temporary place of a lack of conflict.
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