The Other

Juliann Sostre
English 93
Draft #3 Have you ever experienced being the “other”? When you are the other it means being invisible. Being rejected by other people who are different from you may affect someone’s personality and outlook. You’re being discriminated by everyone so you feel like there’s no point of even doing what you like to do. In the reading “Diversity and it’s Discontents” Arturo Madrid writes that even though he was born and raised in this country, he has spent most of his life explaining who he’s not. Arturo says that in schools there is more socialization than education. In the reading he explains how he grew up being known as the other in an American society.
Being the other not only means having a different skin complexion as somebody else, it is also having an accent, being a female or male, age, sexuality, religion and race, for example like it catholic churches if you are a Christian you would be the other, or if you are African American in a white community you would be the other. In the reading Arturo says “I have spent most of my adult life explaining who I am not.” He is basically saying that his whole like he has been judged for his looks, the way he talks, and his name. Arturo is an American but because of his looks people don’t consider him an American so he is the “other”. People may criticize you just because you don’t look like the nationality you are, or they speak with an accent. I was born and raised in the United States but people think I am Indian or Dominican because of my complexion and the way I talk. I feel like that is discrimination because they are judging before actually knowing me and guessing my nationality and culture before asking me. I feel like the “other” because people expect to put Hispanic on applications instead of American and because people come up to me speaking in Spanish assuming that I know what they are saying. People that are considered the “other” may experience change in their personality and their outlook on life. When people are discriminated they feel the need to act different to fit in, for example some people change the way they talk and use the terminology “white talk” and it’s really not “white talk”, it’s just proper English. Other people may change the way the dress just to look like other people, they experience criticism and people being unfair towards them. In conclusion I think that people shouldn’t treat others like different people. Everyone is the same and deserves to be treated with respect and non-discrimination.