De-Othering

De-othering is a way to question how the “self” is defined in contrast to the “other.” In decolonial materialism, this term helps to understand how colonial and imperial histories shape personal identity. Decolonial materialism requires the usage of this term to help contextualize subjecthood shaped by colonial and imperial legacies. This process of de-othering demands a questioning of the root of our marginalization and the mechanisms in which that exclusion further operationalizes systemic discrimination. When we sustain the binary division of “us” versus “them,” we are cementing the impact of colonialism in the everyday. De-othering is a term that allows one to begin using the “self” to be a facilitator of inclusive, equitable, non-hierarchical social structures.

De-othering recognizes the value in our differences and in the identity of being a “marginalized” subject because it becomes the basis of our relationality to one another. De-othering is a core decolonial-materialist feminist framework that seeks to address and resist the enduring impacts of colonialism, whiteness, and Eurocentrism. As a framework and even as an embodied practice, it emphasizes the material conditions under which a person is gendered and racialized and, therefore, coerced into a set of power relations that leads to material dispossession and exclusion in broader society.

Decolonial feminism addresses the global impacts of colonial legacies. It encourages people to use their concept of “self” to challenge power structures that label others as “inferior.” A process by which a person rejects associating their “self” with the “other” represents one approach within decolonial feminist strategies to challenge the colonial hegemony over ideas of personhood. Materialist feminism focuses on how capitalist patriarchy influences power structures. Intersecting identities like race, class, and sexuality significantly affect a person’s experience, often positioning them as a “permanent underclass” or “other” in society. This compounded positioning highlights the structural impact of colonial and capitalist legacies, which systematically exploit and marginalize groups based on these intersecting identities, creating layers of exclusion and reinforcing social hierarchies.

Some key themes exist to operationalize the process of de-othering are recognition and acknowledgment, power and privilege, and intersectionality, as well as decolonization. Recognition and acknowledgment are at the root of how someone recognizes their humanity and inherent worth, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or another social status (Fanon 1952:87). Recognition means acknowledging marginalized subjects’ lived experiences, which directly challenges their imposed “other” status in colonial structures (Wynter 2003:312). It is in this process of acknowledgment that the legacies of colonialism and imperialism become at the forefront of how one’s “self” is conceptualized. Therefore, it provides nuance to how there is nothing “other” about marginalized communities because their dispossession and exclusion are at the center of how legacies of colonialism become stronger and more pronounced in everyday social relations (Anzaldúa 1987:43). The process of recognition and acknowledgment is central to the mission of decolonial-materialist feminism, as it disrupts normalized social structures and encourages critical dialogue and contextualization. This process affirms the humanity of those systematically positioned as the “other,” labeled as “inferior” and “deficient” (Smith 1999:58).

This theme is closely connected to “Power and Privilege.” De-othering reveals how colonial and capitalist systems are interconnected, embedding power dynamics that sustain and reinforce marginalization (Fanon 1961:57). Processes are needed to dismantle colonial structures that reinforce these systems’ legitimacy and work toward redistributing power to everyday people. Those who currently possess the power to claim “self” – and thereby associate with “power” rather than “marginalization” – become the focus of decolonial-materialist feminists seeking to destabilize such associations (hooks 1989:95). Through the process of de-othering, individuals can reclaim power by redefining their “self” independently of identities mobilized by power structures that perpetuate the dispossession of the “other” (Lorde 1984:45).

Navigating one’s identity in de-othering is closely linked to intersectionality, which is the total recognition that one’s conception of “self” is interconnected and influenced by multiple forms of oppression (Crenshaw 1991:1241). Multiple social categories are, therefore, overlapped, creating a consciousness around the nature of oppression as being rooted in the compounded impact of how multiple marginalized identities face oppression because of their status as the “other” (Collins 1990:68). The compounded effect of intersecting identities – such as race, gender, and class – demonstrates how colonial legacies interconnect to perpetuate exclusion within social structures (Anzaldúa 1987:77).

Finally, de-othering gives content to the process of decolonization by encouraging the “self” to directly challenge colonial legacies and practices that perpetuate and order the logic of society with the process of marginalization to cement oppression in the every day (Fanon 1961:92). Decolonization directly examines how colonial histories, ideologies, and epistemologies define social relations and societal power structures (Mignolo 2011:54).

Through the process of de-othering from a decolonial-materialism feminist perspective, the method in which knowledge is produced and disseminated must be a decolonial act to assert that the “other” has a voice and lived experience to contest the validity of the endurance of these colonial legacies. Decolonization is an act where the “marginalized” “self” asserts a challenge to the normal colonial social order directly, forcing a two-way dialogue without waiting for permission.

De-othering as a generative process has been explored and highlighted by many decolonial-materialist feminists to encourage us to employ this as a productive and transformative social process (Moraga and Anzaldúa 1981:12). María Lugones writes in her text Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes, “Racist/colonialist perception is narcissistic; it denies independence to the seen; it constructs its object imaginatively as a reflection of the seer. It robs the scene of a separate identity… The white person is the original, the Black person just an image, not independent from the seer” (2003:97). Lugones underscores the need to center marginalized voices to disrupt dominant narratives and resist the colonizer's imposition of alienation. She argues that individuals should reject being perceived merely as products of a colonial legacy. Instead, they should define themselves as active agents, articulating unique identities that expose the conditions and structures contributing to the construction of the “self” (ibid.). Another central thinker is Linda Tuhiwai Smith, whose book Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples allowed an introduction to how to procedurally do decolonizing research as a way to embrace alternative knowledge systems (1999:88). She discusses de-othering as a way to challenge assumptions and biases embedded within research practices that perpetuate colonial power dynamics. The book directly criticized how academic research in the afterlife is a constant reminder that knowledge producers were central to the expansion of imperialism and social exclusion, plus dispossession. The researcher must now directly confront their “self” and employ “de-othering” in knowledge production. This approach subverts enduring frameworks, allowing inquiries to explore how marginalized communities navigate their position as the “other” under oppression.

Materialist feminism, on the other hand, explicitly examines how capitalist patriarchy shapes power relations and sustains systemic inequality. Harsha Walia highlights how intersecting structures – capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy – collectively work to “other” marginalized groups, creating what she calls “border imperialism.” This process relegates certain groups to a “permanent underclass” within social hierarchies, wherein their identities become grounds for exclusion and exploitation (Walia 2013:36). The intersection of marginalized identities – such as race, class, and sexuality – intensifies one’s vulnerability and entrenches them within systems of exploitation and dispossession, a phenomenon Walia frames as the “colonial state’s mechanisms of exclusion” (ibid.:42). This compounded positioning not only intensifies experiences of exclusion but also exemplifies the enduring impact of colonial and capitalist legacies, which systematically exploit and marginalize groups based on intersecting identities, creating layers of exclusion and reinforcing social hierarchies.

Overall, a deep, interconnected, and shared humanity exists in our collective struggle to dismantle colonial and imperial systems. De-othering practices dismantle these legacies using intersectionality and centering marginalized voices. These processes can help create a lasting consciousness and movement that continuously challenges how the “other” became a target of oppression, dispossession, and exclusion.