# Othering Othering is “[[2025-0325. Othering is 'a desperate attempt at keeping the boundaries between ‘the self‘ and ‘the other’, intact'|a desperate attempt at keeping the boundaries between ‘the self‘ and ‘the other’, intact]].”[^1] > Othering involves zeroing in on a difference and using that difference to dismantle a sense of similarity or connectedness between people. Othering sets the stage for discrimination or persecution by reducing empathy and preventing genuine dialogue. Taken to an extreme, othering can result in one group of people denying that another group is even human.[^2] [^1]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 29. [^2]: Clint Curle, ‘Us vs. Them: The process of othering’, *Canadian Museum for Human Rights*, 24 January 2020, https://humanrights.ca/story/us-vs-them-process-othering.