Minorities and Dominant Members of Society
In U.S. history there have been two basic groupings of citizens: minority and dominant. The U.S. minority groups were originally Native Americans and Blacks, but included Irish, Catholics, and many other non-Protestant non-White groups. The U.S. dominant group was the British Protestant, also known as White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP). It is important to remember that the dominant group does not always have to be the most populous group in society.
Minority group is a group living within a society which is disadvantaged in terms of power, control of their own lives, and wealth.
Dominant group is the group within a social system which has more power, control, and wealth.
Apartheid
Nowhere in either definition does it state that the size of the group has an impact over whether a group is dominant or minority. In some cases, there is a direct relationship, but in others, there is not. One of the most famous cases in which a minority group had considerable more members than the dominant group occurred under the apartheid in South Africa.
Apartheid was when South African formalized separateness between Blacks and Whites, mandating White supremacy and privileged treatment between 1948 and 1990.
Apartheid was broken apart by the combined international efforts of Black leaders like Nelson Mandela and the efforts of other nations who put economic and political pressure on the South Africa Afrikaner National Government. In this example, blacks were by far the most numerous, yet whites ruled cruelly with supremist ideologies that lead to international outcry and eventual collapse of apartheid rule there.
There are a number of examples of the dominant group mistreating its minority group members in the United States:
- Anti-miscegenation laws - no interracial marriages
- Forced or reinforced segregation - keeping dominant and minority group communities separate
- Legal oppression - slavery, denial of right to vote, no public education, etc.
- Expulsion - Cherokee Trail of Tears forced march
- Unjust incarceration - WWII Japanese internment camps, Native American pre-reservation incarceration, and Guantanamo Bay-GITMO
- Outright annihilation - conquering Native Americans
Marginalization is the purposeful mistreatment of minority group members that yields them geographically part of the society while simultaneously being functionally left out of most of its opportunities.
Marginalization is slightly more subtle treatment and often results in material deprivation and exclusion. Most non-Anglo Saxon groups have experienced some level of marginalization in U.S.history. After years, decades, and generations of living under dominant group oppression, minority group members often reach a point of standing up against the dominant group.
This happened among the pro-French minority group members in Quebec, Canada, the Blacks in South Africa, and the Blacks in the Southern United States.
Unfortunately, many minority group members accept their plight and live with social circumstances regardless of how they really feel inside. Because of their frustration and long-term fatigue they sometimes self-incriminate and accuse self, family, friends, or others in their minority group of negative stereotypes and labels imposed by the dominant group.
