There’s something about Other that frightens Us. Other may have different eyes or different hair or skin or maybe Other doesn’t talk like Us. We, of course, are normal and Other, being different, is not normal…and that frightens Us. We are more comfortable with those like Us. That’s the way it is supposed to be. “Birds of a feather flock together” you know.
In America there has always been a fear of Other. Early on, Other had a different religion or spoke a different language. Later, Other had a different color skin. We tried to keep Other out by making laws. After all, we had to protect the way we were meant to be. So we made it against the law to be Other, then we could keep Other out because Other was a criminal and not because of Otherness.
Funny thing, some Others who became like Us forgot they had once been Other themselves and worked even harder than the rest of Us to keep Other from doing what they had done. But, they don’t say they are frightened of Other, they say they are protecting the border and preserving law and order.
Sometimes I think they are really afraid that if there are too many Others, they will become Us and we will become Other.
Image Credit: Niccolò Caranti on Flickr