Fears & Anxieties

Othering is a common, and unfortunate, reaction to epidemics. Throughout history there have been scapegoats to disease and sickness. For example, the Jewish population in Europe was persecuted for the plague. We are currently seeing a COVID conspiracy tied to anti-Semitism in the UK. Gay men for years have been discriminated against because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 17th century Salem, women were deemed as witches for bringing sickness. In the USA, there have been many COVID hate crimes against Asian Americans. This also happened in the late 19th century when the Chinese were made to be scapegoats for diseases such as leprosy and smallpox. These examples do not illustrate the entirety of hate that has occurred.

In the final case, images of death and skeletons are dancing among the living. A coping mechanism for dealing with death is making sense of your mortality. Since the 13th century there are examples of these frolicking skeletons, which represent memento mori.