Underprivileged racial minorities

Nature

Racial minorities may be dominated by other racial and national groups, who discriminate against them, exploit them while keeping them in subjection and who try to destroy their cultural, social, religious and linguistic patterns.

Background

The global significance of underprivileged racial minorities emerged prominently in the 20th century, as decolonization, civil rights movements, and international human rights frameworks exposed systemic disparities. Landmark events such as the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, South African anti-apartheid struggle, and United Nations conventions highlighted persistent inequalities. Over time, cross-national research and advocacy have deepened understanding of how entrenched social, economic, and political barriers affect racial minorities worldwide, prompting ongoing international concern and policy responses.

Incidence

Underprivileged racial minorities occur particularly where there has been colonization or mass immigration. The imposition of a more developed culture subjects primitive people to a state of slavery or complete dependence which shatters their existing social structure. Through discrimination they are not accorded equal rights or adequate special treatment to integrate them successfully into the new order. Racist or intensely nationalist policies may consciously attempt to obliterate minority culture for political reasons or may exclude racial minorities from citizenship rendering them stateless. They may be deported and their property expropriated, as in the case of the Ugandan Asians in the early 1970s. Underprivileged racial minorities may be used for the pretext of war by another country where the same or a similar racial group predominates.