Some thoughts and ponderings on the connections between Othering and deservedness
1)
Ingram and Schneider talk about how deservedness and Otherness operate together to create and maintain the boundary between who belongs in society and who doesn't.
Ingram and Schneider define "deservedness" as a social construction, and argue that the groups a society defines as Other are also the groups societies understand to be undeserving. Deservedness is a tool to control the boundary between the dominant group and other groups.
I've also been thinking about the how this process of Othering and deservedness works together. Here's what I've got so far:
When one group is defined as undeserving and as Other, then another group (the group that does the defining) is defined as deserving and dominant. These groups are defined simultaneously, since defining one group as deserving automatically defines the other group as undeserving.
The group that is able to define another group as undeserving probably has the power to marginalize or withhold resources from that group.
These processes not only create distinctions between groups, but construct one group to be superior over another group.
These process creates and maintains hierarchies. The group in power uses this process not only to define themselves as powerful, but to make sure they stay powerful through the Othering of other groups.
Extrapolating from this, it becomes possible to understand how and why people experiencing homelessness come to be understood as undeserving Others. This label is not their own choice, but is forced onto them by another, more powerful group. Plus, this act of labeling of people experiencing homelessness as undeserving is itself a form of marginalization, for once labeled, resources are further withheld. Moreover, more powerful and wealthy groups come to be understood as superior and deserving against the group experiencing homelessness. This binary relation is used to legitimize the position groups: one group as deserving, the other as not.
2)
Ingram and Schneider discuss ways social policy and deservedness intersect. Here are some of the things they mention:
Social policy can be used to construct groups as deserving or undeserving. This can be done in ways the shore up the power of certain groups, but it can also be done in ways to challenge the power of dominant groups (for instance, challenging racial segregation and offering social security to disabled people). However, the authors point out that social policy is more often used to maintain power structures than challenge them.
The social construction of deservedness is not "permanent". It can be challenged and it can shift. This allows for new understandings, which can have implications for social policy. For instance, post 9/11 Arab American were constructed in a negative light leading to discriminatory policies. They became "undeserving". On the other hand, the last few decades have brought positive shifts in how persons with HIV/AIDS are understood. They have become increasingly understood as "deserving".
I know that social policy has been used to create groups of people experiencing homelessness. By this, I don't just mean that social policy created the label of homelessness. I'm referring to the structural causes of homelessness, which have a lot to do with social policy decisions.
Anyway, I like this recognition that the construction of deservedness isn't permanent, because it's a nice reminder that social policy can be used to challenge homelessness and the way we think of people experiencing homelessness as undeserving.
3)
I also think this is really interesting because what Ingram and Schneider are arguing is that it's easier to think of people as undeserving when they're understood as Other.
I tend to think of oppression, privilege and deservedness as separate things that only sometimes intersect. Now I'm thinking that maybe that should change.
Groups that are understood as Other are often denied resources in society. This suggests that deservedness and oppression are deeply entwined, and that deservedness is connected to racism, classism, sexism, cisgenderism, ableism, etc.
If ideas about deservedness impact oppression, then they must also impact privilege. Thus, if it's easier to think of people are undeserving if they're oppressed, it must be easier to think of people as deserving when they're privileged.
Do ideas of deservedness shape the way oppressions and privileges operate? Do we absorb ideas about deservedness at the same time we absorb ideas about oppression and privilege? Do we absorb ideas about oppression and privilege at the same time we absorb ideas about deservedness? Can we separate these things?
What happens when we consider intersectionality? In what ways and in what contexts are we understood as deserving and undeserving? People can experience privilege and oppression simultaneously. Can we experience being deserving and undeserving at the same time?
Re: oppression and deservedness
I've been thinking about oppression and deservedness in connection with the way marginalized groups in society are treated. In particular, I've been pondering the way agencies cater to certain groups of people, yet exclude other groups of people. For example, it has been pointed out that many disabled people have trouble even accessing many agencies, including homeless shelters, because agencies weren't designed taking disability into account. They may lack staff or even the infrastructure that allows them to be accessible in the first place.
In this case, I see multiple layers of deservedness and oppression. An ableist world tells us that disabled people are undeserving in general. This understanding of undeservedness is reinforced when disabled people aren't even considered when agencies are designed.
Thinking about it this way, it's like undeservedness is used to create further undeservedness. Undeservedness reinforces itself, recreates itself and spreads. This furthers the oppression experienced, and further silences and marginalizes.
Sources: what I linked above, "Five faces of oppression" by I. Young & "Contradictory tensions in anti oppression practice in feminist social services" by L. Barnoff and K. Moffatt
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