Answer to Question #193913 in Sociology for Melissa Williams

Question

Explain how race class and economic/power occurs in othering

Answer 1

In society, there is a group of people who are considered and respected while others are disrespected and marginalized, therefore, they are othered. Othering is a situation where a group of people in the society are considered to be members of the in-group while others to be members of the out-group. This phenomenon occurs due to the difference in socioeconomic level, race, sexual orientation, political affiliation, language, age, and gender.

Othering in most cases leads to dehumanization and disrespect, therefore, leads to violence. Taking a factor like race, those who have a different ethnicity are always disregarded and are dehumanized because of their skin color. People with the same skin color reduces their associations with those who have a different skin color. This leads to loneliness and fear. In addition, taking power as a consequence of othering, it is often realized that the powerful people like politicians, leaders, and the rich have their class and their way of doing things therefore they do not associate with the people who have low economic standards. This has led to the classification of people as superior and inferior. Therefore, the superior discriminate against the inferior.