This weeks readings in Holliday were about otherness.  The first passage shows how otherness can be seen and stereotypes are formed on what we relate with the otherness we see.  He thought that he would be offending the neighbors by asking them if they wanted to watch television at their house, when in fact they were grateful that they allowed them to come and watch.  I asked my roommate if she had the same experience with her best friend from high school who is a converted apostolic christian.  I am not educated enough to know all the practices of this religion, but I do recognize that she dresses differently, wears her hair differently, and believes different things than I and my roommate believe.  Recently she was in her friend's wedding, and I asked if she avoided asking or doing certain things because of the company that she was exposed to.  She said that she first tried to say something about television and nobody understood what she was talking about and she did not talk about anything related to that after.

The second passage showed me how emotions influence peoples stereotypes.  When we have a negative emotion with a certain race, language variation, or social class we will generalize that emotion with all people of that same race, language or social class.  The two people in the example may have had a positive emotion and ended up getting together. This would obviously give them and their relations a good opinion of that culture.  I feel as though otherness and stereotypes are driven by emotions, feelings, and relationships.

The third passage was about power and discourse.  This point made me question, when do people have enough.  When does othering go too far and when is it appropriate to act on or claim that someone is othering you?