Theme: People who are seen as “outsiders” are treated as less than human.
Topic 1. Fear is used to create paranoia about groups of people who are seen as different.
Source 1. The first page of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (source)
Also, a sign posted dated July 23, 1892 calling for a meeting of Tacoma, WA citizens to convene to discuss their opinion on the “Chinese question.” (source)
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President MacArthur in 1882. It prohibited immigration from China for 10 years (and was later extended and made permanent in 1902). “For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.” The claim that Chinese were taking jobs away from Americans, partnered with the cultural differences (the Chinese they ate unusual food, they wore their hair in long queues, did jobs that were considered feminine, like laundry)served to brand them as outsiders and exacerbated the negative sentiments against them. The law also “refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them” (source). The refusal to grant them citizenship is indicative that they were not seen as equals, but as permanent "others."
Source 2. A pulp novel written by Sylvester Viereck, published in 1952 (source)
In the Cold War era of the 1950s, the restrictive environment emphasized traditional gender roles (lecture source). The cover of the pulp novel by Viereck is a graphic representation of the anti-homosexual sentiment. The title implies that gay acts in prison have turned a man into a beast, and the book was given a 4 star rating by the Boston Traveler for showing “the shame and evil that lurk behind bars.” While the cover does not explicitly addresses homosexuality; it is implied. In the United States, “homosexuals were attacked, purged from the armed forces, banned from federal jobs, and subjected to state laws against sexual deviancy” (lecture source). The acts were committed because it was believed that homosexuality was evil and unnatural, and equal rights were denied because of the same reasons.
Source 3. Mental Health Poster by Amber Osterhout (2009) (source)
Currently, a stigma exists regarding mental health disorders and there are many misconceptions and stereotypes about people who suffer from these disorders. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said, “Stigmatization of people with mental disorders is manifested by bias, distrust, stereotyping, fear, embarrassment, anger, and/or avoidance. Stigma leads the (public) to avoid people with mental disorders." The artist of the poster was inspired by her brother's mental illness and she realized how “our views of mental illness have become skewed by misperceptions and stereotypes,” and the poster shows these skewed views (source). The lack of public understanding of mental health issues leads them to see people as outsiders who exist on the fringes of society, and by avoiding them they perpetuate misunderstanding and treat them less than equal.
Topic 2: People who have different religious beliefs and do not submit to Christian dogma are ostrasized.
Source 1: "Burning of Three Witches in Baden, Switzerland (1585) by Johann Jakob Wick (source)
During the height of the witch hunts, men and women who were thought to be in league with the Devil were hanged, drowned, or burned at the stake. Their use and belief of magic and supernatural powers branded them as outsiders of the Christian religion. their alignment with the Devil made them enemies. This work of art by Wick shows the violence that was used to punish people found guilty of witchcraft.
Source 2. Painting by John Gadsby Chapman (1840) (source)
This painting depicts the scene of Pochahontas being baptized as Rebecca. The baptism took place before her marriage to John Rolfe, who stands behind her. “The scene symbolizes the belief of Americans at the time that Native Americans should accept Christianity and other European ways” (source). This painting shows the “othering” of Native Americans in a more subtle way. Pochahontas was not considered acceptable and marriagable to an Englishman until she adopted Christianity and abandoned a religion that was connected to the land and nature. After she converted to Christianity, she was able to marry John.
Source 3. Excerpt from J.A. Hobson's Imperialism (1902) (source)
"The presence of a scattering of white officials, missionaries, traders, mining or plantation overseers, a dominant male caste with little knowledge of or sympathy for the institutions of the people, is ill-calculated to give to these lower races even such gains as Western civilisation might he capable of giving. . . ."
Hobson criticized the exploitation that imperialism created. While he doesn't specifically talk about religion, he speaks of missionaries having little knowledge or sympathy for the subjugated people and suggesting that their domination does more harm than good. Even so, he calls people the "lower races" and because they are a different race; they are below and not equal to the English.
Topic 3: People perceived as political threats are undermined by being treated as enemies.
Source 1. Excerpt from Mein Kamph, by Adolf Hitler (Vol 1 published in 1925 and Vol 2 in 1926). (source)
“If the Jews were alone in this world, they would stifle in filth and offal. . . . No, the Jew possesses no culture-creating force of any sort, since the idealism, without which there is no true higher development of man, is not present in him and never was present. Hence his intellect will never have a constructive effect, but will be destructive. . . .
With satanic joy on his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting [presumably Aryan] girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means he tries to destroy the racial foundations of the people he has set out to subjugate. . . .
Around people who offer too violent a resistance to attack from within he weaves a net of enemies, thanks to his international [communist] influence, incites them to war, and finally, if necessary, plants the flag of revolution on the very battlefields.....
Culturally he contaminates art, literature, the theater, makes a mockery of natural feeling, overthrows all concepts of beauty and sublimity, of the noble and the good, and instead drags men down into the sphere of his own base nature. . . .”
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators (source).
The Nazi view that Jews were inferior and were a threat to the German racial community led them to exterminate Jews (among other groups of persecuted people) and conduct experiments on them. Since they were seen as contaminating, they were not deserving of being treated as human. They are less than human as “the Jew possesses no culture-creating force of any sort, since the idealism, without which there is no true higher development of man, is not present in him and never was present.” The excerpt above clearly makes Jews out to be the enemy, who “lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood.” Because Jews had a vast international network, they were even more dangerous to German nationalism (lecture source)
Source 2: The cover of a propaganda comic book published in 1947 by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society (source)
Anti-communism was strong in the Cold War Era. The comic book cover shows how communism would create havoc in America; it is using violence as a scare tactic. Thus, communists (and their sympathizers) were painted as the enemy that threatened to undermine the United States political system. Suspected American communists and sympathizers were hunted down by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. “HUAC aggressively investigated private individuals whom it felt either openly associate and assist disloyal groups or covertly operate as members or fellow travelers of such organizations. For several years a wide variety of people were subjected to cruel public interrogations, including Hollywood celebrities and Army officials.” (source)
Source 3. Political cartoon by Darryl Cagle (2011) posted on www.msnbc.com (source)
The cartoon is an editorial view that shows the anti-immigrant belief that undocumented immigrants who come into the United States do so for the health care, jobs, and education and take those benefits away from Americans who are entitled to them. There is a movement in the United States, particularly Arizona, to limit the rights and personal freedoms of immigrants. Arizona SB 1070 (2010), in its original form, required “aliens over the age of 14 who remain in the United States for longer than 30 days to register with the U.S. Government” (source) among other measures. The required registration is reminiscent of the McCarran Act during the McCarthy era. The state bill was passed with changes made to the most controversial provisions, however, still portrays immigrants as “others” explicitly in the law's language, referring to them as aliens.
Throughout history, people who have looked different, acted different, or believed different things have been branded as outsiders or others. Many times, their outsider status is seen as threatening and unnatural. The success of those in power to label people as "less than human" allowed them to justify treating them as such.