I'm not entirely convinced that minorities exist.

[Kopikatsu]

To clarify that point...I'm Hispanic, and if my grandmother is to be believed, Jewish. But I'm white, along with +72% of Americans. I could easily choose to identify as a minority, because I technically am one. US Census says that in '10, 16.4% of the population checked off Hispanic for ethnicity and only 1.4% identified as Jewish.

If that makes my point clearer. I don't think there is anyone who is purely a minority, race/religion/gender/ethnicity/etc. The only difference between the majority and the minority is that the group that identifies as minorities is that the minorities hold an 'us vs them' mentality while the majority remain largely apathetic. (This is what has been told to me time and time again by people who consider themselves minorities. Specifically that being part of the majority means you don't 'feel' what it's like to be a minority.)

There's also the fact that men are considered to be a majority despite only making up 49% of the world (and the US's) population. If not for some Eastern country's old practice of killing females because they were considered undesirable due to not being able to carry on the family name, it would probably be higher.

Edit: To clarify further, I'm not saying that I don't believe minorities exist so much as it's a pointless distinction to create an arbitrary 'us vs them' mentality in the group that identifies with said minority.

 

[hazabaza1]

From what I remember from Sociology is that "Minority/Majority" doesn't refer to sheer amount, but rather something along the lines of who has the most societal control.

So, in America "straight white male" is a majority, not because there's so many of them, but because most people in power are straight white males. (It might not be now, just using an example)

 

[Angie7F]

i agree that majority/ minority is not about the percentage but who is in power.

 

[Kopikatsu]

From what I remember from Sociology is that "Minority/Majority" doesn't refer to sheer amount, but rather something along the lines of who has the most societal control.

So, in America "straight white male" is a majority, not because there's so many of them, but because most people in power are straight white males. (It might not be now, just using an example)

I'm not even sure that discredits my spiel. Life was pretty rough until I started putting 'Hispanic' on all my forms. For example...couldn't get any scholarships, couldn't get a job despite going door to door in shopping plazas every other day for three years straight, etc etc. But the moment I started putting down my ethnicity? Two callbacks on the first day, then a third a week later. Currently, the government is paying the entirety of my tuition and then some. My taxes went down too, although I'm not sure if that was due to listing myself as Hispanic or taxes just went down.

I get waaaay more privileges and benefits from identifying as a Hispanic than I ever did as a Caucasian. (Yes, I'm aware that Caucasian isn't an ethnicity, but they ask 'White (Non-Hispanic)' on most forms)

 

[Thaluikhain]

If that makes my point clearer. I don't think there is anyone who is purely a minority, race/religion/gender/ethnicity/etc.

More or less true, that's why intersectionality is so important. You might be a racial minority, but in the majority in regards to sexuality, for example. You could absolutely face legitimate race problems because of that, while simultaneously persecuting someone else for their sexuality.

The only difference between the majority and the minority is that the group that identifies as minorities is that the minorities hold an 'us vs them' mentality while the majority remain largely apathetic. (This is what has been told to me time and time again by people who consider themselves minorities. Specifically that being part of the majority means you don't 'feel' what it's like to be a minority.)

Rubbish. There's a big difference in that the minority groups don't have as much power. That's more or less the whole point.

It's not that the "majority" don't have an us or them mentality, it's just that they don't suffer from it, because the "them" are unimportant. For example, it's straight people who decide if gay people can marry, not the other way around.

There's also the fact that men are considered to be a majority despite only making up 49% of the world (and the US's) population. If not for some Eastern country's old practice of killing females because they were considered undesirable due to not being able to carry on the family name, it would probably be higher.

Minority isn't the right word, yes. You could also say that the richest 1% are technically a minority, but nobody is going to claim that they get oppressed because of it. "Privileged" is generally used instead of "majority", because it's more accurate.

 

[hazabaza1]

From what I remember from Sociology is that "Minority/Majority" doesn't refer to sheer amount, but rather something along the lines of who has the most societal control.

So, in America "straight white male" is a majority, not because there's so many of them, but because most people in power are straight white males. (It might not be now, just using an example)

I'm not even sure that discredits my spiel. Life was pretty rough until I started putting 'Hispanic' on all my forms. For example...couldn't get any scholarships, couldn't get a job despite going door to door in shopping plazas every other day for three years straight, etc etc. But the moment I started putting down my ethnicity? Two callbacks on the first day, then a third a week later. Currently, the government is paying the entirety of my tuition and then some. My taxes went down too, although I'm not sure if that was due to listing myself as Hispanic or taxes just went down.

I get waaaay more privileges and benefits from identifying as a Hispanic than I ever did as a Caucasian. (Yes, I'm aware that Caucasian isn't an ethnicity, but they ask 'White (Non-Hispanic)' on most forms)

Seems like it could be minority bias.
I'm probably gonna sound like a massive dick, and rest assured I don't mean to, but you know how companies will hire disabled people to seem more accepting or whatever? The same could apply to something like a minority group, if they do so exist.

On top of that, in terms of the whole tuition thingy, that seems like it could be minority bias too. You know, like "white people are privileged enough, we should help people who need it". I don't know the situation myself and I really can't be arsed to find it out, but I'm assuming where you live hispanic people aren't renowned for fantastic political or commercial success?

Again, most of this stuff I'm basing off of 2 year old sociology classes and shit I've read on the internet. Don't quote me on any of this in actual proper debates.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I believe this is relevant:


And he's right... with a lot of freedom of movement, these days compared to years past, mixed race people are only going to increase in proportion to everyone else. Well, Russell says it better than me...

 

[Batou667]

I'm distrustful of minority/majority status as it fosters tribalism and division, and encourages minorities to also see themselves as victims.

I think the sooner society "gets over" this kind of pigeon-holing the better. Either we're ALL minorities in that we're individuals, or we're all unified by the fact we're human.

 

[Queen Michael]

While we're on the subject anyway:

 

[Pinkamena]

I think the notion of "minorities" is a little silly. It does nothing but alienate each other.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'm distrustful of minority/majority status as it fosters tribalism and division, and encourages minorities to also see themselves as victims.

You don't think minority groups might be seeing themselves as victims because they tend to get, you know, victimised?

Groups with little power have always been at the mercy of groups with more, by definition. Saying that people getting picked on should pretend they aren't to avoid division is completely missing the point.

I think the sooner society "gets over" this kind of pigeon-holing the better. Either we're ALL minorities in that we're individuals, or we're all unified by the fact we're human.

Certainly. But people often confuse pigeonholing with not pretending that it doesn't happen. Ignoring the fact that it's going on won't make it disappear.

 

[Phasmal]

I think it might be easy to not see the point of minorities when the things that negatively affect them don't affect you.
Those things don't get solved by `just.. like... think of people as people, man`.
Because we're all guilty of unconscious bias.

 

[Batou667]

You don't think minority groups might be seeing themselves as victims because they tend to get, you know, victimised?

Groups with little power have always been at the mercy of groups with more, by definition. Saying that people getting picked on should pretend they aren't to avoid division is completely missing the point.

Sure, I'm aware that I tend to gravitate toward Just World fallacies (or at least, people tell me as much on a regular basis), but I think our current paradigm encourages people to self-identify as minorities and then use that as a go-to proof of victimhood whenever something bad happens (or when something good fails to happen, like getting a promotion). It's a combination of Special Snowflake thinking and compensation culture, and I don't think it's helpful for anybody concerned.

If we had a robust enough culture of protecting the individual, we wouldn't have to divide and subdivide social groups, and label whole swathes of people de-facto "victims" or "oppressors" or "privileged". If somebody's being a jerk, call them a jerk - there's no inherent need to quantify it as racism or sexism or ableism or gingerism. When we do that we politicise physical or social attributes and construct a hierarchy of "moral high-ground" - just give me plain egalitarianism.

Many would undoubtedly disagree, but that's what I think anyway.

 

[Thaluikhain]

If we had a robust enough culture of protecting the individual, we wouldn't have to divide and subdivide social groups, and label whole swathes of people de-facto "victims" or "oppressors" or "privileged".

If we did, then certainly.

If somebody's being a jerk, call them a jerk - there's no inherent need to quantify it as racism or sexism or ableism or gingerism. When we do that we politicise physical or social attributes and construct a hierarchy of "moral high-ground" - just give me plain egalitarianism.

I disagree there. If we are to prevent a problem from occuring again, we need to understand it, which involves looking for patterns.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

I don?t have a clue what you?re talking about, other than yes, you can be a minority while being a majority at the same time. For example, I?m black and Atheist born to Muslim parents, but cis male, straight, and middle-class. I?ve faced little to no malicious discrimination in my seventeen years living in some dull city in the UK, despite it having such a small concentration of ethnic minorities and, according to my friends, being a pretty racist city (I guess I just don't hang around in the shitty areas of the city). Most of my self-loathing of my race is due to low self-esteem, paranoia, and partly, my friends making racist jokes that they didn't realize just how much it hurt me.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Of course minorities don't exist. The Illuminati created the myth of black people because material that is ballistically similar to human skin is slightly transparent against light if it's the same peach-tan color of Caucasian skin. The reptilians need some means of concealing themselves amongst us, lets be real here.

But no seriously, I think Morgan Freeman says it pretty well here

 

[Ryotknife]

While I do agree that the US government focuses too much on a person's race/religion/gender/whatever rather than just helping people, there is one area that racial minorities have it rough. That is law enforcement/justice system. Well, the black/latino community at least. The justice system treating minorities harsher creates an anti-authority culture in those communities, and the two start feeding off each other.

 

[JDLY]

To clarify that point...I'm Hispanic, and if my grandmother is to be believed, Jewish. But I'm white, along with +72% of Americans. I could easily choose to identify as a minority, because I technically am one. US Census says that in '10, 16.4% of the population checked off Hispanic for ethnicity and only 1.4% identified as Jewish.

This isn't completely relevent, but it'd kind of a pet peeve so I'll say it anyway.

Just because your ancestors (in this case your grandmother) is/was Jewish does not mean you are Jewish. I always hear people say "Oh, well I'm part Jewish." Judaism is a religion, not a race. One cannot be "part Jewish" anymore than they can be "part Christian" or "part Muslim."

OT: I do pretty much agree with you about the rest of it though. People that identify as minority often only have a couple ancestors that were Asian/African/Hispanic/etc... , while they themselves are, for the most part, Caucasian. It can make things quite confusing at times.

 

[norashepard]

I see a few people saying that minorities as a concept only serve to divide humanity. And in some cases that is unfortunately true, but in most, it isn't. Minorities as a concept help preserve culture and allow a larger voice to groups so often silenced. Plus, it is foolish to believe that minorities are affected only in words as well. Law enforcement is downright villainous towards black/latino people, with an absurd amount of black men ending up in prison in their lifetimes. Similarly, transsexual people are often denied medical service because of who they are, sometimes even at the scenes of accidents, where they are left to die because the EMS workers refuse to help them.

So minorities do exist and are a valid concept, and while they can create the Us vs. Them idea, in some cases, they are required to even let oppressed people speak. After all, who is going to understand what it's like to be transgender if they are not so? And should those people who cannot understand be the ones who get to decide how trans people are treated? Probably not.

 

[Lieju]

Judaism is a religion, not a race. One cannot be "part Jewish" anymore than they can be "part Christian" or "part Muslim.".

Isn't it both, though? There are people who identify as 'Jewish' despite having different religion, or being atheist.