The Origin of Others

Colorism is a form of prejudice or discrimination based on skin color whereby those with darker skin are treated poorly relative to those with lighter skin, even within the same social/cultural group. Morrison devotes attention to colorism in Chapters 3 and 4. Colorism appears in white American literature, where skin color “reveal[s] character and drive narrative” (42). It also appears in the discussion of Black towns; Morrison notes that the Black towns were predominantly inhabited by the light-skinned (57), and that color coding amongst Black people was one of the realities that motivated the towns’ founders (64).

Globalization refers to interaction and integration among peoples, cultures, governments, and businesses worldwide. As Morrison discusses in Chapter 6, it has taken many different forms throughout history, but its current iteration is “the free movement of capital and rapid distribution of data and products operating within a politically neutral environment shaped by multinational corporate demands” (96). Globalization is of interest in The Origin of Others because the mass movement it causes (often as a result of the impact of colonialism, capitalism, and war) prompts those in power to attempt to fortify geographical and social borders to counteract the challenge mass movement and the integration of “foreign” people, languages, and cultures pose to “the concept of home” (94). This fortification of borders involves the process of Othering.

The “Other” as a philosophical concept has a long history, informing the work of writers like Hegel and Sartre. Morrison’s use of the term draws on a tradition of examining the relationship between the self and the Other in the context of particular kinds of inequality—e.g., gender hierarchy in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex or imperialism in Edward Said’s Orientalism. For Morrison, “Other” is a term that refers to a person or group of people with a constructed and subordinate social identity that differs from the constructed identity of those in power. In terms of racial identity, the Other is anyone who is not white. More specifically, it is someone who is Black, as white identity is defined in opposition to Black people. Othering refers to the process by which the distinction is made and reinforced so that the dominant group can maintain power and control over the Other. The process of Othering and its impact on both the dominant and subordinate group is the central focus of the text.

To romanticize means to idealize something or describe it in terms that make it appear more appealing than it is in reality. According to Morrison, one of the ways that white Americans accommodated the degradation of slavery was by romanticizing it. She discusses Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a case in point due to the way that Harriet Beecher Stowe paints idyllic scenes of slavery and features enslaved characters with an instinct towards kindness and gratitude who don’t require brutal treatment in order to behave “properly” (9-13).

Scientific racism refers to a belief that empirical evidence exists to prove the superiority and inferiority of racial groups. While race itself is a social construct, scientific racism has sought to prove that it is biological, and that “characteristics” of racial groups are biologically determined. As Morrison illustrates in The Origin of Others, scientific racism has been integral to the process of identifying and controlling the Other and spreading racist beliefs. She discusses the work of Samuel Cartwright and his invention of “diseases” describing the conditions and behaviors of enslaved Black people (4-5). The invention of “diseases” such as drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica was used to justify brutality towards enslaved people.