On being them.

c+t being themselves.

I have been thinking about how we use the word “them.” How we use it to describe anyone different, in some way, than us. I am wondering if the language we use to discuss impasse can be less divisive. When we place ourselves into opposing groups we isolate ourselves from what we don’t know and don’t like. Regardless if these difference rest on belief, on faith, on the body.

If our “other” represents a threat to our identity and way of life, or if we find ourselves met with intolerance and hatred, communicating with the goal of understanding (however minute) could be helpful. This is what I am thinking: we limit our collective growth and the possibility of learning from each other when we say “them” with judgement. After all, we are all somebody’s “them.”

I am beginning an archive, an exploration of how we distance ourselves from others and in what ways we inhabit the role of “the other” ourselves. There is a dichotomy between “us” and “them” that appears in our conversations over and over, I hear an implicit (or otherwise outwardly stated) VERSUS in between. I want to consider how existing “on our side” isolates us further. I’m looking at the ways in which we inhabit both the role of “us” and of “them.”