oth·er (verb)

1

April 1, 2014 by J_R_Heaney

Writing about the prison system as an author who has never been incarcerated, or really even had unfortunate encounters with the justice system, is something I take seriously. Through writing I try to empathize with experiences that I have not gone through. Even if I cannot comprehend the emotional trauma and difficulties that inmates encounter within prisons, I do believe it is critical to attempt to understand these individuals and their stories. What I know is that to understand and empathize with current or former inmates we cannot ‘other’ them, or label them as inherently different (somehow) from individuals not incarcerated. Avoiding ‘othering’ is the least I can ask from anyone to understand the stories of prison inmates. Only after acknowledging and listening to those individuals trapped within the prison system can we begin to understand them. And after understanding their stories, we can begin to understand how to chip away at the daunting, dark institution of prison and shed some light into its depths.

This post is meant to illustrate the horrific gaps in empathy that form when we other our fellow human beings.

 

oth·er (verb)

To mark as different

To make

Alone

Apart.

To make a target

We shoot blindly at

Because we

Aren’t looking.

To separate

Desecrate

Never our problem

(But a problem nonetheless.)

Aggressively apart

Passively thought of

Vehemently

If at all.

Not my call

My concern

My burden

To share.

I am I

You are other

And thank god

I am free.