LCT 1
Task 2 Part A
January 10, 2015

The “other” is an individual or group who does not fit the expectations or model of the power group. They are seen as insufficient, inferiors; they do not deserve to belong to the group. There are different reasons for that: different race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation and many more.
Does it mean that they are a minority? No. Sometimes an entire country or community can be considered the other.
Sometimes, and this is my personal opinion, being the other can be in your mind, the group accepted you and included you but in your mind you are still aware of the differences and second guess every act of friendship from the group.
Part C
Identify who the other is in this work. The other in this work is Melissa Algranati, the author. As she puts it, “there are not too many Puerto Rican Egyptian jews out there. “So the only category left for her on the census form is “other” (Algranati, 2010)
Explain what or who makes them other
The fact that in America there is not as many Puerto Rican, Egyptian Jews makes her the other.
“When I was young I did not realize that I was unique, because my family brought me up with a healthy balance of Puerto Rican and Sephardic customs.”
“I did not understand how a country built on the concept of diversity could forget about its most diverse group, inter-ethnic children. I felt lost in a world of classification. The only way for me to take pride in who I am was to proclaim myself as an other” (Algranati, 2010)
How otherness is represented in this work.
Even though she, Melissa Algranati, has the “American look”, blonde hair and blue eyes, her background, her culture is not all pure American. She feels uncomfortable when the Hispanic culture is single out because that is half of her heritage, her mom is from Puerto Rico, “I will always remember how I when I heard they made one of their daughters cancel a party because she had invited Hispanics. Even when my friend pointed out that I, the one they love, was Hispanic they refused to accept it. Even today to them, I will always be Jewish and not Puerto Rican because to them it is unacceptable to “love” a Puerto Rican.” (Algranti, 2010)
The author's perspective on otherness.
From Melissa Algranati perspective, being the other it is not something easy to endure but in order to get a better job, a better position in society something giving up your essence is the way to go. “Since she was raised to be above the ghetto, never picking up “Hispanic mannerisms” she was able to exist in American society with very little difficulty” (Algranti, 2010)
She feels a sense of not belonging to any of these groups “Throughout my life I do not think I have really felt completely a part of any group” (Algranti, 2010)

Part D
I am currently teaching in a preschool class and we have the non-English speaker, the crier, the one who wants to play alone and the one who wants to be friend with everybody. We divide them into groups based on their knowledge, so each group has a good character combination.
At this age it is easy to talk about being friends with each other and not leaving anybody out of this circle of friends, it is really sweet to see how they try to include and help the non English speaker, or try to calm down the one who cry because things are not going the way he wanted.
However, on the other side of the spectrum, from kindergarten to fifth grade, I saw how can a child that is not wearing the “right “clothes, or does not brush their hair, or smell because does not take a shower every day can be single out and become the other. As teachers, we try to talk with the students and teach them to learn about those kids and in that way understand their behavior. For the last year, our school has been using the program “Leader on Me” and little by little we starting to see some changes, we are empowering the children to accept each other the way they are and love the differences because that makes them unique.

References
Algranati, M. (2009). Signs of Life in the U.S.A. Readings on Popular Culture for Writers (Sixth ed.). Boston. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
The Other. (n.d.). Retrieved January 08, 2015, from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/other.html