Orientalism, Said, and Modern Forms of "Othering"

The first thing I noticed about Said's claims about Orientalism was that the three things that he means by Orientalism are interdependent. This rightfully frames Orientalism as a system of beliefs and actions that work together to produce and reproduce the idea that there are inherent differences and hierarchies among the many peoples of the world. The fact that theorists and other thinkers have accepted the East/West dichotomy as a beginning for theories, literature, social commentary, and political commentary, shows that there is an urge to enforce and a reason to accept "otherness" as truth. This brings me to the idea of paths of least resistance; if there is a system that is already in place, and there are penalties for defying that system, people will choose the path of least resistance and maintain the system by doing so. Said also states that Orientalism in itself was a pathway to Western domination. Thinking of peoples from a different part of the world as "other" serves to dehumanize and makes it easier to take control over that region. Said goes on to say that the Orient, because of Orientalism, is "less a place than a topos." It is so misrepresented and construed that it has lost its real meaning to many people. The concluding idea to this particular section was that Orientalism served to present the Orient as purely "other" in every way.


It is interesting to take these ideas and apply them to the world in which we live today. Many people still see all or parts of the East and Middle East as some sort of fictional land where nothing really happens. Many people would refer to people of Asian descent as "exotic," contrary to what the numbers say. More than half of the earth's population lives in Asia, but many Americans are under the impression that they are inherently "exotic" simply because they don't all live here. Another aspect of our world in 2015 that reflects the history and perpetuation of Orientalism and Imperialism is the attitude, specifically in the United States, of nationalism that excludes those who have immigrated here or even those who look "different." The colonizers who first came here did not "belong" here, nor did they treat the indigenous with respect. Ironically, the descendants of those colonizers are fuming about the entrance of Mexican immigrants, and the presence of African Americans, whose ancestors we brought here ourselves. The content of the readings that we did about Orientalism is all very applicable today, and I believe that's the most important thing to take away from those excerpts.