By: Sophia He
\nYouth Council<\/p>\n
Consciously or unconsciously, our communities contribute to our identity and sense of self. While each of us has our own unique identity, whether a community is one that \u201cbridges\u201d or \u201cothers\u201d plays a crucial role in the formation of a healthy identity and ultimately, a healthy community.<\/p>\n
Othering is a pattern of exclusion and marginalization based on having identities that are different from the norm. As John A. Powell, the Director of the Haas Institute at UC Berkeley says, \u201cOthering is not about liking or disliking someone. It is based on the conscious or unconscious assumption that a certain identified group poses a threat to a favored group.\u201d What is the norm or the favored group, though, is simply a social construct where arbitrary lines of separation are drawn based on differences. They may believe \u201cthese people think differently than me,\u201d \u201cthey threaten my way of life,\u201d \u201cthey cannot be trusted,\u201d and, sometimes, even \u201cthey are less than fully human.\u201d Often we see these perceived differences and othering manifest in politics, race, and gender. However, in acknowledging the inevitability and richness of differences, people who bridge instead of \u201cother\u201d may observe\u201cthey may think differently than me, but they are worth listening to,\u201d and \u201cthey deserve to be part of the conversation, even if we disagree,\u201d and \u201cmy life is richer because of our connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the mission statement of Living Room Conversations, the emphasis is on bridging; conversations for connection not for the purpose of persuasion, but rather, for sharing experiences and deepening our understanding of other perspectives. Not only do Living Room Conversations prioritize and encourage participants to provide each other with common courtesy and respect but also to actively seek people who share different perspectives to join in conversations. Through bridging, Living Room Conversations exemplify the creation of a community that fosters not \u201csaming\u201d but \u201cbelonging.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Sophia He Youth Council Consciously or unconsciously, our communities contribute to our identity and sense of self. While each of us has our own unique identity, whether a community is one that \u201cbridges\u201d or \u201cothers\u201d plays a crucial role in the formation of a healthy identity and ultimately, a healthy community. Othering is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-17876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingroomconversations.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}