The photograph I chose was taken by Wing Young Huie and published in his "We are the Other" collection published in 2012-2013 on his website. In the photograph is pictured a high school aged boy and girl in the foreground and a teacher and a peer of the male and female student are in the background. The setting is that of a high school classroom. Both the featured male and female student are holding up chalk boards with different messages. The girl's message reads "I'm not black, I'm African American". The boy's message reads "I have depression. I'm not sad".  These things are evident without analyzing much of the photograph. Upon looking deeper into the meaning behind the photograph it displays a powerful message of the negative affects of labeling people, and especially the affect on young people. The photograph is displayed in black and white to suggest that there is only two ways in which these young people can be seen, and that there is no gray area in-between. The color of the photograph also is used to emphasize the unhappiness that is being portrayed in the photograph. The teacher in the background is not directly guarding the door but is standing in front of it in such a way to suggest that even though the door is open the students are not allowed to leave. The messages that are on the chalkboards are the messages that are supposed to be portrayed to the audience and be the main point of focus in the shot. In the case of the African American girl, her chalkboard is implying that she often feels as if the people around her view her as just black, which often times carries a negative connotation, when instead she views herself as African-American, which is a much more inclusive term. This speaks to the high school experience, when everyone is being labeled as something by their peers. In addition the chalkboard the boy is holding is very powerful. It seeks to send the message that their is a difference between experiencing sadness and having a mental illness. Though much progress has been made in the realm of mental health, there is still a problem with people trying to belittle a mentally ill persons illness by comparing it to an emotion that everyone has undergone at some point in their live. The boy in this photograph is declaring that he has this mental illness and through his message hence implying that his peers have before accused him of just being sad.
In The Handmaid's Tale and the aforementioned photograph language is a critical aspect of the message that is being sent by the text about "others". In the photograph, the two teenagers who are holding chalkboards both write about what they are not and what they are. By using the word "not" in such contexts it implies that both of these teenagers have had people assume they are what they are saying they are  not. The language is being used to show that they are different than what their peers assume them to be and hence they are separate from the their peers. In this way the photograph is able to portray how these two students fall into the category of "others" at their high school because they do not conform to the expectations of their peers. Language is utilized in a similar way in The Handmaid's Tale when compared to the photograph. In the novel, the term "unwoman" is used to describe a feminist, or a women who refuses to fit into her prescribed role in Gilead. This language suggests that the person is not a women due to her choice to defy fitting into the womanly roles in the new society, this term is used to separate these people. Hence, similarly to the photograph, the language used in The Handmaid's Tale is used to signal a person who is not seen to fit in and falls into the category of "other". An important difference to note is that in the photograph the language comes from the individual who is being discriminated against as an "other" whereas in the novel the society created the language that discriminates against the group of people to be seen as "others".
-mk shoun