“Minority . . .”? Not so fast . . .

Minority
The word is supposed to mean the above . . . but does it really.
Many of you that know me online and in real life probably have noticed that I hardly use the term ‘minority’ . . .
I say ‘so-called’ to preface it because, in my belief, the term ‘minority’ is NOT nor has it ever been just about ‘numerical numbers and ratio’s of one ethnic group vs another’.
It’s a term that is frankly a ‘slur’ in my opinion . . . a way to call us to our faces — and us accepting it — ’whatever racial trope we used to be called by whites but is now implied by this accepted ‘umbrella term’’.
That’s why I say ‘so-called’
It’s a ‘low hanging fruit’ to impugn non-whites that a white supremacist society ‘just couldn’t help but insert little pins and razor blades into’.
It always made me bristle to use that term
For instance:
We use the term minor to refer to children and teens . . . and for good reason:
They aren’t fully grown yet and are not yet able to take care of themselves or don’t have a fine enough honed sense of danger. They are vulnerable and ripe for exploitation.
They don’t yet have a fully developed set of skills, intuition and knowledge to ‘safely’ self-determine their Life Charters
This last part . . . Let me repeat because I’m coming back to it later:
“They don’t yet have fully a developed set of skills, intuition and knowledge to ‘safely’ self-determine their Life Charters”
It’s not just a term dealing with ‘under the age of 18'.
So . . . why are entire groups of people called ‘minorities’ then?
Yes we are vulnerable and have been since the inception of this country due to the deliberate imposition of white supremacy . . . but seriously did we as the collective group of non-whites ever NOT . . .
“. . . have a fully developed set of skills, intuition and knowledge to ‘safely’ self-determine (Our) Life Charters”??
We ALWAYS did.
White Supremacy and its tools of Genocide and Colonialism have systematically ‘demagnetized that compass’.
If we’re given the chance . . . if we are left to our own devices . . . if we weren’t subject to ‘predation’ then we’d be better off.
“No it’s only about numbers . . .!”
Well that’s interesting considering that worldwide WHITES are technically a ‘numerical minority’. There are more Blacks, Hispanics, Asians on this planet than whites . . . and each group blows whites away in sheer numerical comparison.
Minor-ity
It’s not only about the numbers folks . . . in fact the numbers consideration is the salad dressing over a very bitter salad.
To me the term impugns us . . . it means that no matter what you think you are ‘we’ (white power structure) believe that you’re inherently ‘inferior’ (which is another ‘simile’ of ‘minor’) and ‘can’t be trusted’ to take care of yourselves and by extension can’t be trusted to ever get to parity with ‘us’.
Here’s a real hint at how subliminal that message is:
I’ve heard folks refer to people in Africa . . . in their home country where they are unquestionably the majority, and I’ve heard the same reference to majority Asian countries too . . . that they are ‘minorities’.
Yeah crazy shit right?
How can you refer to people in their home countries where they are the vast majority . . . as a ‘minority’ . . . if it didn’t mean something MORE than just a ‘numbers reference’? Hmmm?
That right there is a dead give away to the point I’m trying to make.
I said earlier that it could be considered a ‘slur’ because the numerical context that the term is SUPPOSED to be couched in has been lost. ‘Minority’ as a term now mainly intimates ‘what you look like juxtaposed to not being ‘white’’.
The picture below was found with a google image search for the term ‘minority’.

This is larger society defining for us again who we are. It is deftly making us accept a subliminal, ‘not-so-innocent’ meaning to an otherwise seemingly-innocent term.
The proliferation of the use of the term since it came into being in the 15th century is coincidental (or not) to the struggles for equal rights during the 20th century and on into the 21st. I wonder . . . why

The term ‘minority’ has been so widely, benignly accepted in societal parlance even by those being ‘tweaked’ malignantly and insidiously by it, that many will probably disagree with the umbrage I’m throwing it’s way. I preface it with ‘so-called’ because I want to give notice that I recognize ‘the game’ that is and has been played. We can’t be called spic, chink or nigger openly anymore . . . but ‘that habit’ must be ‘fed’ . . . I guess.
I may be wrong and I would love folks to try to prove me so. I’m not the only person to feel that way apparently:
There are some new informational sources like Dictionary.com that directly allude to the role of race in the definition of ‘minority’:
4. a racial, ethnic, religious, or social subdivision of a society that is subordinate to the dominant group in political, financial, or social power without regard to the size of these groups:
This further bolsters my original assertion about this term. Language is full of seemingly innocuous terms, adjectives and idiomatic expressions that speak volumes about the times they were created or were most in use, in terms of society, politics, religion and cultural norms/conflicts.
This term ‘minority’ is one of those loaded terms that has flown largely under the radar.
You will do what you will ultimately, but I’m asking you to rethink using the word ‘minority’ to describe yourself and ponder deeply what it’s really saying and what it has really meant . . . especially in these times we live in.
(C) Bantu Rhythms 8/23/17
