The Identity of Marginalized Groups

Oppressors do not exist. The people oppress themselves.

A marginalized group is an identity group that considers itself as victims of identity injustice and inequality. Most of the time these groups form out of identities that were oppressed, persecuted, and mistreated on the basis of their identity.

The fundamental paradox of marginalized identity can be stated as follows: People are oppressed for their group identity, but continue to remain in and identify with that group. This paradox lies at the root of and explains much of these identities’ behaviour.

It would be expected that marginalized identities would want to get rid of the identity structures that made them marginalized in the first place. But contrary to expectation they are identity-centred, identify very strongly with their groups, and seek to retain the identity structures. In other words, they want to only remove their identity-based problems but to keep the identity that causes them.

For marginalized groups their identity is essential to their sense of self. They see them as a part of who they are. As a result their identity matters a lot to them, and they are very strongly identity-minded rather than individual or humanity-minded.

From this identity-centeredness comes a commonly witnessed phenomenon—marginalized identity selfishness. They want development and progress for only their own group and not bother about the others and they do not think in inclusive terms.

Most of the so-called marginalized groups are not as underprivileged as they claim they are. The explicit structures of domination no longer exist in human society. But these groups cling on to their remnants to allege four major aspects of identity injustice—economic inequality, inequality of political representation, discrimination, and hate.

Economic inequality is not linked to identity, but the correlations persist. The reason for this is not continued dominance as these groups allege, but the defects of the capitalist system and the identity system. Under these systems over generations both wealth and identity are hereditary. The rich become richer and the poor poorer, and if group X is better off than group Y they will also pass on their group identity like their wealth to their descendants. But correlations will decrease over time because of economic mobility.

Political underrepresentation in elected bodies is again something which is not supposed to be correlated in a fully democratic regime. Regardless of identity whoever is selected is through due democratic process. When people of marginalized identity point out underrepresentation they are essentially saying that identity is more important than the will of the people.

Discrimination is fairly widespread and a deeply ingrained social problem. But again the marginalized groups have got it wrong when they claim systematic domination and oppression. Discrimination occurs because of individual prejudices and biases and is not the result of group supremacism as a whole.

As for hate in society it is seen that it is bidirectional. Marginalized groups engage in at least as much hate as do the supremacists of the so-called dominant groups. When they refer to other identity groups as oppressors and accuse them of committing injustice, it amounts to spreading hate and discord in society.

People identifying with marginalized groups know that their identity has an emotional appeal and use it to their advantage. Having such an identity is perceived as going through a struggle due to poorer socio-economic conditions on average and mistreatment by society; some identity-minded people may want to compensate for this through some special treatment. So they sometimes obtain an unfair advantage due to some people’s reverse biases.

Marginalized groups are also heavily mobilized on identity. Most of them have formed political organizations and unions to advance the identity’s interests. In some cases mobilization grew out of pride movements, where members of a marginalized identity gathered and expressed their pride at belonging to a certain identity. Mobilization is a major contributor to marginalized identity-centeredness and selfishness.

Another point worth noting is that the individuals in the marginalized groups keep changing with generations. Most systematic domination systems ended quite some time ago, so these groups are mostly composed of new generations of individuals who never suffered the same kind of oppression their predecessors did. So when these identities demand what they claim is 'justice', one must not think in terms of identity and reason that a group needs upliftment due to past injustice. Their call for identity justice is nothing but invoking an imagined community and somebody else’s suffering for their own privilege.

But unfortunately many people do not see through identity and call for some government action to uplift these groups and create ‘equality’- affirmative policies. Affirmative action is the creation of legal inequality or selective identity-based policies to purportedly establish social, political, or economic equality. Such policies typically include reservations, selective government spending, welfare programs, relaxations in qualifications and other special privileges. Many people who see society in terms of groups rather than individuals rationalise this by arguing that backward groups need upliftment. But no identity contains only underprivileged people or all the underprivileged people. So welfare programs must be based on individuals rather than identity and must not be unfair to the rest of society.

The second paradox of marginalised identity gives the reason for affirmative action: Marginalized identities call for creating inequality to establish equality. While systematic operation has ended, true socio-economic equality is slow to come, as shown by the continued identity-inequality correlations. So marginalized identities, in the haste for equality, make the fallacy of demanding additional but reverse injustice—so that the injustices cancel each other out and there is equality. The result is apparent equality but with double the injustice and an extremely identity-centred society.

Despite already having affirmative policies that give them privilege, why are marginalized groups unsatisfied with ‘justice’? One reason is the continued identity-inequality correlations mentioned earlier. But the second major reason is the history factor. Identity groups have a profound connection with the past. Past oppression has given marginalized groups a sense of hurt pride which has become embodied in the identity. Since the past cannot be corrected, the perception of being marginalized is unlikely to be changed, no matter what affirmative action or even privilege and superiority they get.

From the paradox of marginalized identity it can be inferred that these groups would favour the concept of diversity. Because they want to keep their identity but remove inequality, the idea of recognizing differences among people based on identity appeals to them. But this approach will not work towards creating a just society and will only perpetuate inequality.

The only way to establish a just and equal society is to dismantle the identity structures that cause domination, oppression, inequality, and selfishness. Until marginalized groups do not realize this, justice cannot be done.