othering

1. 1
   noununcountable

   see other

   The process of perceiving or portraying a person or group as essentially alien or different.

   The report examined the othering of refugees through dehumanizing language in political speeches.

   Colonial narratives relied on the othering of native populations to justify conquest.

   Note

   Before it belonged to politics, it belonged to German idealism. In 1865 James Hutchison Stirling, translating Rudolf Haym on Hegel, wrote of "an othering of this other." By the time of Lois Weis (1995) and Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin (1998), it named how a group marks those it deems different, especially in colonial discourse. It usually takes of, as in the othering of refugees, and otherization means the same.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of other.

   The textbook was criticized for othering indigenous cultures as primitive curiosities.

   Media coverage kept othering the protesters, framing them as a foreign menace.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is transitive, so it needs a direct object. A textbook is accused of othering indigenous cultures, never simply of othering. That is the quickest way to tell it from the noun for the process, which takes of, as in the othering of refugees. The verb also stretches past perception to treatment, closer to segregating or ostracizing someone.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2