During an interview with Christiane Amanpour, PM Najib actually said that we must not marginalize the majority race. I always thought only the minorities are being marginalized by the majority and not the other way round.
I Googled the word 'marginalized' and found a blogger who discussed the term under her post, 'Can we find a better term for 'Marginalized' people?
Excerpt:
'In sociology (and several other academic disciplines.) the term minority group(s), refers to any group that has less access to power; in other words any group that is underrepresented in the power structure of a country or culture. A synonym I use in my classes is subordinate groups. Some minority or subordinate groups would include women, children, Muslims, Jews, Asian Americans, African Americans, gays, lesbians, the disabled, poor people, the working class, and so on. In contrast, the majority group or dominant group, the most powerful groups, would include whites, men, the wealthy, able bodied people, and so on.
So here is the problem, most people don’t think of the term as something related to power. They think about numbers. There are way more people in this world who are not considered White than there are Whites. So people of color are a numerical or mathematical majority, even if they are a sociological minority. The same is clearly true for women.'
More:
http://amptoons.com/blog/2006/03/23/can-we-find-a-better-term-for-marginalized-people/
In Malaysia, the Malay race forms the majority of the population, has political power and controls all major institutions. Isn't Najib's statement paradoxical?
Link
I Googled the word 'marginalized' and found a blogger who discussed the term under her post, 'Can we find a better term for 'Marginalized' people?
Excerpt:
'In sociology (and several other academic disciplines.) the term minority group(s), refers to any group that has less access to power; in other words any group that is underrepresented in the power structure of a country or culture. A synonym I use in my classes is subordinate groups. Some minority or subordinate groups would include women, children, Muslims, Jews, Asian Americans, African Americans, gays, lesbians, the disabled, poor people, the working class, and so on. In contrast, the majority group or dominant group, the most powerful groups, would include whites, men, the wealthy, able bodied people, and so on.
So here is the problem, most people don’t think of the term as something related to power. They think about numbers. There are way more people in this world who are not considered White than there are Whites. So people of color are a numerical or mathematical majority, even if they are a sociological minority. The same is clearly true for women.'
More:
http://amptoons.com/blog/2006/03/23/can-we-find-a-better-term-for-marginalized-people/
In Malaysia, the Malay race forms the majority of the population, has political power and controls all major institutions. Isn't Najib's statement paradoxical?
It's the art of "putar belit". The art of duping. Catching one unawares with paradoxical statements and momentarily getting away with it.UMNO is very good at it. Indoctrination too.
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