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| http://know.wingyounghuie.com/post/21190069635 |
This photograph, taken by Wing Young Huie and titled Walter, can be seen in Huie's collection We are the Other. It was published in 2012 on Huie's blog and shows a boy sitting on a bench holding a sign that says "Equality For the Undocumented" in South Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The image is in black and white which might appear fancy, but the setting of the photo is relatively average. There's no flashy backdrop or special clothes. You can see a boy wearing casual clothes, a bench, a wooden pole, some plants, and the sidewalk. None of these objects are out of the ordinary other than the sign.
Looking deeper, however, you can see that this picture has a lot of meaning. The boy is not famous in any way. This brings out the meaning of the sign. Though this boy is undocumented and unknown, he still wants to be treated like a person. So many other people share this wish which is why this picture is actually really important.
The boy's skin tone is in relation to the sign as well. Equality has always been, and still is, an issue when talking about race. The black and white filter and the boy's face also give the picture a much more somber feel. This is definitely intentional in that it brings out the seriousness of the statement on the sign.
This all ties back into the word "othering". "Othering" is present all over the world if you just look for it. This boy, for example, is a victim of "othering" for several reasons. His race is one and his social class is another. Huie does a very effective job of presenting this by making this picture very simple. The fact that there is nothing overly extraordinary about this picture makes the picture extraordinary. The whole point is that this image is normal as that captures the true sense of the "others". Victims of "othering" don't have to be particularly odd, they can just be normal people who don't have a say in society for one reason or another.
The sign the boy is holding is what truly brings out the sense of "othering". You are to assume that the boy is one of the "Undocumented" mentioned in the statement. You feel bad for the boy because of this which is also intentional as it makes you realize what "othering" really is. It's harsh and it hurts the victims no matter what.
Our world isn't the only world you can see "othering" in. Take a close look, at Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and you'll see it in that world as well. The most obvious victims of "othering" are the handmaids and the marthas as they are commonly seen throughout the novel, but you can also see it in the rarely mentioned Unbabies and Unwomen. The fact that these two groups of people are only mentioned a few times in the book is the first sign of "othering". They are even being "othered" by the narrator of the book. The Unbabies and Unwomen are "othered" by the overall society as well. This choice in not mentioning these groups is a clear contrast to Huie's idea of putting the victim right in front of your face. Both ways of presentation are powerful, one is just more subtle and takes a closer look to see.
