Journal Article

Categorisation and Minoritisation

Zembe-Mkabile, Wanga, Deivanayagam, Thilagawathi Abi, Devakumar, Delan, White, Alexandre, Selvarajah, Sujitha, Lasco, Gideon, Scafe, Suzanne

2020

Overview

Minoritised can be a more useful term as it describes intersectional forms of discrimination, and acknowledges the active processes involved in differential allocations of power, resources and ultimately health. In health literature, ‘Asia(n)’ continues to be shorthand for the entire continent, or to specific parts (eg, East and Southeast Asia) based on the largely unchallenged assumption that, ‘due to the ethnic, genetic, environmental and cultural differences, clinical data of the Western populations may not be representative of Asian countries’.5 6 The implicit assumption is that the ‘West’ is the default ‘reference population’ with which ‘Asians’ are compared—notwithstanding the fact that even with the most restrictive definitions, ‘Asians’ make up three fifths of the world’s population. Adhikari,2 who makes a case for embracing the Coloured identity, stated ‘coloured identity is also very much the product of its bearers who, I would argue, were in the first instance primarily responsible for articulating the identity and subsequently determining its form and content’. [...]these terms do not cross borders with the term Coloured being pejorative in the USA and the UK, but embraced by some in South Africa. 4. Universality of minoritising power structures We recommend the term minoritised, which emphasises active processes,17 shifting beyond binary discussion of minority versus majority.17 18 We build on existing explanations19 to define minoritised, as ‘individuals and populations, including numerical majorities, whose collective cultural, economic, political and social power has been eroded through the targeting of identity in active processes that sustain structures of hegemony.’

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd,BMJ Publishing Group LTD,BMJ Publishing Group
• Subject: Apartheid / Asian people / Colonialism / Commentary / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Cultural differences / Data collection / Environmental health / Epidemics / Epidemiology / Eurocentrism / Global health / health education and promotion / health policies and all other topics / health policy / Homogenization / Minority & ethnic groups / Noncitizens / Oppression / Population / Power / Racism / White people