The news attention has already shifted to other things, but at Prevention Institute we’re still contemplating the depth of hatred we saw last week when a white supremacist murdered 50 people in their place of worship in Christchurch, New Zealand, because the people assembled were Muslim.
One of our core values as an organization is interdependence, so we feel it deeply when we see acts of violence being carried out against people who are deemed to be “others.” We see this happening all too often through overt violence and structural bias. This “othering” positions groups of people as less valuable human beings and in some cases even as less than human. More and more people, especially immigrants, people of color, and Muslims are being othered—which is reflected in harmful rhetoric and policy, both in the US and around the world.
Now and always, we must stand together as allies and remind each other that our humanity is interconnected and we can learn from each other. We’ve decided to pass along some thoughtful resources that reflect our guiding principles:
We agree with the Haas Institute at UC Berkeley, which “encourages everyone to think more deeply, more consciously, and deliberately on what societies and institutions can do, concretely, to stem the tide of hate, and create conditions that foster compassion, empathy, and understanding.”
Haas Institute’s director, john a. powell, co-authored
The problem of othering: towards inclusiveness and belonging with Stephen Menendian. The article, which we highly recommend, uses the language of
othering and
belonging to “capture and describe processes and forces that undergird group-based marginalization and inequality” and “develop a range of inclusive responses to group-based marginalization and inequality.”
As an antidote to othering, we recommend Rebecca Solnit’s commentary
Why climate action is the antithesis of white supremacy. Solnit describes the
global climate strike that students throughout the world participated in on the same day as the mass shooting in New Zealand as the antithesis of that event: “Behind the urgency of climate action is the understanding that everything is connected; behind white supremacy is an ideology of separation.”
We hope you find these thoughts valuable at this dangerous and troubling time. We are interested in any insightful articles you’d like to send our way. And we welcome opportunities to work with you to build connection and belonging, rooted in an understanding that each person has worth and value and deserves the opportunity to experience health, safety, and wellbeing.
