I’m the type of person who would read, then reread the same line until it sinks in, that’s why this article took me more than the average time to read it, from the very beginning I was drawn into the article. The first quote that caught my eye was “collision of cultures brought on by the Internet and social media.” I started thinking is there really a collision of culture that’s brought on by social media, or a collision of cultures due to the boarders that countries built up to separate people from other people. Would there be a collision of cultures in the first place if we were all just raised together without boarders? My answer was no, culture is not inherited, but is something taught to us from when we were born, for example, if I was born in the US for example, I would accept things that I would not accept just because I live in Egypt. Don’t get me wrong I love living here, it’s just that some stuff would be normal to me that I don’t find it normal here. I do understand that there would be differences no matter what we do, but what I’m saying that these differences would be minimal and we would learn to accept them because we would all be living together without borders, just like for example, we accept Christians here in Egypt, we see them every day, we interact with them, but we don’t segregate nor oppress them just because they are Christians, and I know they might be segregated by some people here, however, that’s just due to the fact that we were taught to segregate. If no one taught us segregation, we probably wouldn’t segregate. This brings me to my next point, with social media, everyone is in everyone’s business, we are basically living in an open world, which is what would be ideal as I mentioned before, however we are living in an open world due to social media, however we are born with all those borders that whenever we are exposed to a different idea we automatically get into attack mode without understanding where the other person is coming from.
Which brings us to our next point “a hostility toward the unfamiliar or unknown.” This reminds me of the idea of orientalism that was mentioned by Edward Said, he described it as how the West see the East, or basically how the West describe the East from their perspective. The Orient is the Unknown. Since we are unknown to them they see us differently.
“In an interview shortly after the Paris attacks, in which he refused to use the term “Islamophobia,” French prime minister Manuel Valls explained that “[i]t’s difficult to construct a single term that captures the variegated expressions of a broad prejudice. ”This article proposes the term “othering” as an answer to Valls’s challenge.” Islamophobia is certainly NOT the correct word, because if these terrorists knew anything about Islam they certainly wouldn’t kill a single soul, however would “othering” really be the correct term? Why don’t they just call them terrorists? In the end of the day that’s what they really are. It really annoys me when the media is like “A Muslim Eastern man killed x many people,” because firstly, I can assure you he’s not a Muslim, he’s been simply brainwashed, however when a man from any other religion does it, he’s “mentally disturbed.” My point here is that you shouldn’t be calling someone mentally disturbed and the another person “other,” because in some way or another this term would be used to refer to Muslims, people of color, or any other group, hence the problem didn’t go away, you just gave it a different name. “Othering” is a broadly inclusive term, but sharp enough to point toward a deeper set of dynamics, suggesting something fundamental or essential about the nature of group-based exclusion
“We have all likely experienced the discomfort of being some place or with people where we did not feel that we belong.” I used to go to a school where religion was very important, we were all Muslims and I remember whenever a Christian would enroll into the school, he would automatically feel like he doesn’t belong, not because they aren’t treated well, but because they just feel like they’re different, they were never attacked or forced to do anything they don’t want to do, but they just felt alienated. Another example which might be minor but it really did give me a better understanding of who I am was when I got into uni. As I said, everyone is my school was similar, we all dressed the same, talked the same way, we even went to the same places, so it was like we were living in a bubble, so when I got into university, I didn’t want to do what normal teenagers would do, I wouldn’t want to go to clubs nor dress provocatively, I understood where these people were coming from and I didn’t judge them, but they were the majority, and my school were just a minority so I felt different then, and this got me thinking into who I really am as a person, what I like, what I don’t like, it has become a journey of searching for myself.
“These concerns partly explain President Obama’s reluctance to use the term “Islamic” terrorism in association with many of the attacks around the world. Although he has been criticized repeatedly by Republican politicians, President Obama objects to the term “Islamic” terrorism, not only on the grounds that it alienates American allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but the problem he “worries about most is the type that would manifest itself in anti-Muslim xenophobia or in a challenge to American openness and to the constitutional order.”33 In other words, President Obama is keenly aware of how readily public passions may be inflamed when stoked by strategic othering.” I think the problem here is that Obama was primarily afraid of getting on his allies’ bad side. Furthermore, I think he knows the amount of backlash he would be getting if he said “Islamic” terrorists. Republican politicians wanted him to say Islamic terrorists to satisfy themselves by throwing the blame on a whole group of people that they just dislike. For example, if I don’t like a girl, I will probably dislike her group of friends as well, if one person from this group bullies my friend, I will most likely be against the whole group, and I would want to throw the blame on all of them, except here we are not talking about liking and disliking, we are talking about a serious issue and that is Muslims have been labeled for years and years as terrorists, and they keep saying that the Quran encourages Muslims to do terrorist attacks, but in reality Islam calls for peace.
The word “reluctant” also annoyed me, as a president, ruling different religions, including Muslims, he should not discriminate against them in any way, what they’re doing is that they are creating a living hell for Muslims living in the West.
“Scholars have long observed a tendency within human societies to organize and collectively define themselves along dimensions of difference and sameness.” This reminds me of the Egyptian saying “”الطيور علي اشكالها تقعThis also reminds me of how we are divided as a society, and this goes down to the smallest matter. Here is AUC for example, people divide themselves based on their social status; ‘Gucci corner’? how classist is that? Also, whether you notice it or not, people on the steps in AUC are also categorized into groups, the higher you are on the steps, the cooler you are. I call it the steps hierarchy. I met a girl around 2 years ago in AUC, and she would only become friends with people from well know families, and people who only wore brands. Just so that she could be surrounded by similar people.
“In other words, although human beings have a natural tendency to make categorical distinctions, the categories themselves and meanings associated with those categories are socially constructed rather than natural.” I think this is very important and very true. A new born child would not know discrimination if he was not taught to discriminate. For example, a white child was never born to know that he is superior to people of color. Also. A child born in Cairo would never know that he is superior to the ‘fala7een’ unless he was taught so, he either heard it so many times form either his parents or from people in general until the thought became embedded in the child’s mind. And this was further explained in the article, “In the 1950s, sociologists developed “group position theory” as a way of explaining race prejudice.38 According to this theory, group definitions, boundaries, and meanings are the product of complex collective and social processes rather than a result of individual interactions or bias.”
Unconscious bias: I kept trying to remember when have I encountered unconscious bias, however I couldn’t put my finger on the incident, I only remembered after finishing the article. I was in grade 8 and my social studies textbook was written by someone from the West, I couldn’t remember from where, and I remember how the book only mentioned the benefits of the war they won and how great they were in the war, and in a very tiny box in the bottom they wrote about what happened to the people who lost the war and what were the repercussions, I also remember that when they lost a war the book would either mention it in a sentence or would over exaggerate the damage to make their opponents look like the ‘bad guys’. And I remember my teacher at the time explained to us that that was unconscious bias and that’s the way we know it and learn it today because history is written by the stronger.
“Paradoxically, segregation generally arises as a policy response to resolve social tensions and improve outcomes.” In my school, as soon as we got into middle school the boys were separated into 2 classes and the girls in 2 classes, and that was until we got into IB (grade 11 and 12), we started interacting then. I don’t know if that was only me, or my friends as well, but we had a really hard time dealing with boys as an outcome, because my school felt like family, we didn’t know anyone outside of school, therefore we had a really hard time interacting with boys, and I think I got a cultural shock the first year of uni.
“Among progressive educators today, ability-based education segregation is widely supported and broadly practiced to provide personalized instruction and individual support, whether as a result of a physical disability or to tailor programming to ability levels, such as gifted or advanced placement curriculum.” Even though I do believe it does benefit some people I do disagree with the idea. In my school we had advanced math, and a normal class, and people below average. Even though the classes were tailored specifically for the students I didn’t like how the advanced class would make the other students feel dumb. Like as a student I could excel in art for example, but that wasn’t important, it was important for you to be in advanced math, and you just felt dumb if you weren’t.
“segregation is not simply physical separation; it is an attempt to deny and prevent association with another group. Denying association with another group is another way of denying that group’s basic humanity. In that sense, segregation is not just spatial projects but ontological.” I totally agree with this, that’s why I previously explained why I don’t like segregation, and I don’t approve of it.
“We believe that the only viable solution to the problem of othering is one involving inclusion and belongingness. The most important good we distribute to each other in society is membership.” That’s the opposite of segregating, when people belong they feel accepted, and if we go back to my very first words, I wanted a world where everyone would belong to one place, which would limit the hate on social media, and hence the discrimination and the segregation. However there is still a problem with belonging, you will always feel like you belong, you will always feel like an outcast. For example, if you have a membership in Gezira sporting Club, and you bring your friend along, who used to go to El Ahly club for example, they will feel outcasted, therefore ‘belonging’ can only help so much, but you there will always be segregation no matter what you do. Because technically, we can’t all belong to the same group, we can all belong to a group, but that just causes more segregation, these groups will become rivals, and that’s exactly what’s happening. Hence, nothing would actually change.
Thoughts and Tea 