'Others' in Community

     A community that I am apart of consists of the current university in which I am attending. Interestingly enough, I feel that the person's sense of community within a university environment widely depends on when they become apart of that community. In a college environment (Note: I use college and University as interchangeable terms), I notice that the social structure is separated through class years (ie. first-year, second-year, etc). A group of students who are all experiencing the massive changes that occur when first-arriving as first-year students seem to share a similar identity with one another throughout college. I noticed this personally when I transferred from Guilford College to Dickinson College in 2021. At Guilford, I was very connected with members of my class. Once I arrived at Dickinson, I found that I related more with first-year students mainly due to experiencing the newness of Dickinson together. 

    I think that this distinction between different attendance years on a college campus can correlate with the definition of individuals and groups. Normally, I normally identify first-year students as a plural group rather than individuals. I do think that this is different than class year (Freshmen, Sophomore, etc) since some students may be in one class year but be at a different year of attendance at a school. I would more closely identify course year with a person at an individual level. The reason being that I find it to be more of a person's academic identity instead of the number of years that they have been studying with a campus. 

    I feel like the perceptions of different levels of college students influence a person's viewpoint as to how much experience a student has in the college environment. I think that in recent years, the overall demonstration of these perceptions have changed dramatically. For me, I normally look at it as if someone who has more experience than I do on campus could be a useful resource for navigating the college process. I feel that in the past, these perceptions that people have held could have been harmful in terms of social pressure in the unfamiliar environments that new college students become apart of. Overall, I think that the perceptions can be viewed in both a positive or negative way. On one hand, the hierarchical structure can guide inexperienced individuals to gain knowledge from other individuals. On the other hand, these hierarchies can be used in a harmful way.

A person's viewpoint of 'othering' can be vastly different based on individual perspectives. (Source)

    The othering of cultures can be discussed at a regional or national level in addition to a communal level like I was discussing earlier. I think that the othering of cultures can vastly vary on the regions of the world that people are in. For example, the perceptions of others in the Middle East probably applies to cultures of the western world vis-à-vis. The colonial history that the Middle East experienced whether it be from Britain and France in the pre-Suez Crisis era or the USSR or USA during the Cold War could have tarnished the positive perceptions of 'others' for the people of the region. This can get complicated when we look into the Global War on Terror. Specifically, the United States and it's allies were forced to seek out adversaries that were not a political entity. Through varying methods and techniques (like those identified in US Counter-terrorism Options: A Taxonomy by Daniel Byman) showed the difficulties that the United States faced with dealing with the issue of al-Quaeda. As we have seen in the news and through numerous government reports, innocent individuals were caught in the crossfire of this conflict. I imagine that this does not help with the perception of 'other' when looking at the perspective of the people of the Middle East towards the United States. The perception of others can (as I was mentioning earlier) be determined based on the personal experiences that a person or region has politically or culturally.

    The overall idea of othering can in my opinion be explained through human nature and our hierarchical social structures. What I think produces variety in this is the identity of the people, state, or entity that one is looking at. I think that practically, the experiences that people have socially can vary based on their individual experiences. Personally, my explanations are based strictly on my own personal experiences. I imagine that my peers across the world can contribute their own experiences in how they view the othering of social groups.