The Otherness Standards[1] have been identified as the range of skills othered individuals are required to possess and utilize in accordance with social norms and expectations. These standards outline what it means to operate as other in society while also serving as a guide for mediating and describing the differences between the interactions of othered individuals and constituents of the hegemony.[2]
Domains:
- Navigating Interior Space
- Navigating Public Space
- Speaking to Constituents of the Hegemony
- Comprehending the Communication of Constituents of the Hegemony
- Accessing and Retaining Success
- Reactions to Trauma and Injustice
[1] While people can argue that aspects of some of these standards could describe every person’s experience at one time or another, it might be valuable to think about how, and to what degree of difference, these things describe the occasional experiences of constituents of the hegemony versus the entire internal wiring and operation of othered individuals.
[2] simply put, dominant group. “Constituents” don’t necessarily have to see or acknowledge their social capital to hold or exert it.
Domain 1: Navigating Interior Space
The other develops a self-concept where one’s individual merit, value, belonging, ownership, incongruence, and implied villainy are in line with the mediated expectations of social difference and privilege.
1.1
The other finds effective ways to override individual perspective, expression, and experience with socio-historical and stereotypical expectations in order to avoid nonexistence.
1.2
The other sacrifices their individual understanding of the difference between luck and ability in order to adopt the prevailing social opinions of how success, specifically for othered individuals, can or should be obtained.
1.3
The other maintains a sense of ambiguity about their ability and accomplishments and directs their ambivalence about society inward, resulting in the relabeling of one’s ability or skill as simple luck or allowance.
1.4
The other develops and employs skills and strategies to graciously deny or downplay their self-worth, physical presence, opinions, or knowledge, especially in front of constituents of the hegemony, in favor of self-preservation, safety, or maintaining social order.
1.5
The other remains self-conscious and hyperaware of their actions in relation to the role their outlier grouping is allowed to play in the hero-villain narrative.
Domain 2: Navigating Public Space
The other effectively navigates public perception and public space in a manner that is aware of the common narratives which reinforce social difference and the rationale which explains one’s lacking social privilege.
2.1
The other defers their knowledge, experience, physical space, and/or ability, even in situations of other people’s inaccuracy or over-simplification, in order to maintain social order, avoid disciplinary or legal repercussions, maintain notoriety, and/or gain access to temporary power.
2.2
The other uses self-denigration and/or the relinquishment of some notoriety (either as an individual or as a group) in order to maintain social order, celebrate the equal accomplishments of a constituent of the hegemony, maintain one’s career or ranking, avoid disciplinary or legal repercussions, salvage one’s shredding notoriety, and/or gain access to temporary power.
2.3
In instances when constituent(s) of the hegemony determine that the other needs saving, the other directs the pity of said constituent(s) with fidelity in order to avoid the parallel assessment that they need destroying.
2.4
If/when the label “villain” has been assigned, the other effectively deploys strategies that embrace, manipulate, or accepts the label in order to maintain social order, social advancement, or temporarily access power.
Domain 3: Speaking to Constituents of the Hegemony
The other utilizes communication practices, skills, and strategies that remain in line with the expectations of their social difference/privilege with the knowledge that all communication efforts are evaluated based on prescribed scripts, not one’s unique or innovative merit.
3.1
The other effectively deploys communication strategies to avoid unnecessary attention, including self-denigrative apology, advocating against one’s best interest, calculated humility, and/or self-focused sarcasm.
3.2
The other effectively regulates their presence through the use of body language and spatial occupation, knowing when/how to appear in certain public spaces and inversely knowing when/how to disappear.
3.3
The other utilizes silence as a communication strategy, especially in moments when their knowledge or truth will create a socially disruptive or irreparable rift in one’s social façade or directly conflicts with the actions or opinions of an individual/group with greater social capital.
3.4
The other repeats, replicates, or rebuilds inaccurate narrative scripts about one’s person, culture, or perspective to maintain social order or one’s social capital.
3.5
Immediately after acting on one’s frustration and “losing it,” the other effectively formulates an action plan that simultaneously assumes all responsibility and over graciously offers to do all of the work to fix the damaged relationship or social situation.
Domain 4: Comprehending the Communication of Constituents of the Hegemony
The other develops skills and strategies that allow them to accurately read and interpret the communication of constituents of the hegemony in order to access or maintain emerging levels of social privilege, and likewise, to avoid the opposite.
4.1
The other is adept at identifying and properly responding to frustrations and/or silence from constituents of the hegemony directed at either one’s person or outlier grouping.
4.2
The other can effectively identify and properly respond to vague or indefinite communication deployed from constituents of the hegemony, without losing or sacrificing social standing; these types of communication include sarcasm, circular arguments, generalizations, backhanded compliments, nuanced apologies, etc.
4.3
The other can effectively identify and properly respond to purposefully concealed forms of communication without losing or sacrificing social capital.
4.4
The other deploys effective strategies that minimize the effect of communication from constituents of the hegemony that blatantly or unknowingly mischaracterize, minimize, make irrelevant, or cause one to disappear from productive conversation without challenging or undermining the status quo.
4.5
The other deploys effective strategies to conceal one’s confusion or lack of knowledge when it comes to conversations or information that is inaccessible to one’s outlier grouping.
Domain 5: Accessing and Retaining Success
The other properly utilizes determination and creative problem-solving strategies with the understanding that all personal efforts and solutions will be scrutinized, undermined, or ignored.
5.1
The other pulls from a disparate, historical legacy of resourcefulness in order to recreate or rebuild an existence that is constantly taken from or destroyed.
5.2
The other exhibits an interminable creativity and knack for problem-solving in excess in order to counter or neutralize the negative effect of stereotypes associated with one’s outlier grouping.
5.3
The other endlessly prepares for everything expected and unexpected in order to minimize the erosions that come from the maintenance of social norms.
5.4
The other utilizes metaphor, humor, and effective story-telling, while making compelling connections between disparate pieces of information, ideas and experiences in order to make one’s individual and/or communal experiences knowable, relevant, and palatable to constituents of the hegemony.
5.5
In an unending effort to develop dynamic, flawless strategies for self-preservation, representation, and determination, the other incessantly scrutinizes their own story, knowledge, experiences, and value, in an effort to find more poignant and palpable ways to remain relevant to constituents of the hegemony.
5.6
On the off chance that one’s efforts are deemed palatable by constituents of the hegemony and one finds a level of luxury, comfort, or notoriety not usually allotted to one’s outlier grouping, the other acknowledges and employs effective strategies for dealing with the isolation, mistrust, or rejection exhibited by others from one’s social grouping.
Domain 6: Reactions to Trauma and Injustice
The other utilizes skills and creative strategies for dealing with and reacting to trauma as a form of survival, self-preservation, and the betterment of their outlier grouping.
6.1
The other exhibits relentless persistence in the face of inequality and injustice, to the point of annoyance or nuisance in the eyes of constituents of the hegemony, but not to the point of rallying these constituents to seek one’s annihilation.
6.2
The other accepts the inextricable hardships of their reality, while devoting an insane amount of time and energy attempting to positively change, in any small way, future, conceivable realities for their outlier grouping.
6.3
The other resists outbursts of anger or frustration despite pressure, unfair judgement, ridicule, and/or misrepresentation of one’s character or situation in order to avoid being interpreted as/or reinforcing negative stereotype.
The Otherness Standards 