The Silent Minority Strategy: Good or Bad?
By Dyske May 3rd, 2009
Google recently got in trouble for publishing a historical map of Japan that pinpoints the locations of where “Burakumin” lived in Japan, which angered this group of people. To be honest, I had never heard of this group of people called “Burakumin.” They are a minority group (ethnically identical) who are apparently still subjected to discrimination. A left-over problem from their old caste system. Google Earth now makes it easy to identify where they once lived. I’m not sure how this causes a problem, but they didn’t like it. Part of me wishes that I didn’t learn about them at all. Now, if I ever meet a Burakumin, what I now know about them would be associated with that person, unavoidably influencing my view of that person. Whether it’s positive or negative, I would rather not form any preconceptions.
This is a tricky issue with racism (though, in this case, race was not involved): if the young generations are kept unaware of the discrimination, the problem should theoretically go away in time. But if you kept talking about it, would that solve or perpetuate the problem? I’m not exactly sure what the answer is; I’m just raising it as a question here.
For instance, take the Jews as an example. Educating our children about their history of suffering is important in the sense that we can learn from our mistakes and try to prevent them in the future, but at the same time, this can lead to perpetuating the discrimination because there will always be many different ways that people can interpret the same information, and it’s not possible to eradicate bigotry (because prejudice is part of human nature). Bigots will always find ways to discriminate. So, their knowledge of the Jewish history will only give them something to discriminate about, like adding fuel to the fire.
In an extremely hypothetical scenario, if we stopped talking about the Jewish suffering completely for the next 100 years, I would imagine that the discrimination would disappear, because nobody would know about it. (Obviously, I’m over-simplifying my argument here, but I hope you get my point.) Don’t get me wrong, this is completely hypothetical and I’m not suggesting that this is the right answer. However, it is an interesting argument to ponder, because, by studying the extremes, we can always consider the strategy/solution that is somewhere in-between.
In fact, I believe the Asian Americans employed (consciously or unconsciously) the in-between strategy. The Asians here are often called the “silent minority” because they (I guess I should say “we”) are not particularly vocal about speaking up against discrimination. Some people view this as a positive thing while others view this as a negative thing. Well, which is it? And why? If you can share your thoughts, I would appricate them.
K says:
May 16th, 2009 at 9:20 pmI understand your point, and I think talking too much about it can make the problem worse. As much as I get the urge to fix a problem I see, and talking makes me feel like I’m doing something, it’s not always the best way.
I grew up in Canada and live in the US now. The whole race and discrimination conversation is not as active and heated in Canada, but Canada is just as diverse as the US. Between friends people are more comfortable to talk about race or even make racial jokes (with no harm intended) in Canada. Some comedians such as Russell Peters have even made a living of it. In the US you can feel everyone stiffen when the topic comes up, people go out of their way sometimes to “not discriminate”, and cover their tracks. I find that this fear, hypersensitivity, and constant awareness of race in the States make it more difficult for people of different races to forge relationships. I also find that communities and friends in Canada tend to be more mixed and diverse as in the States too.
For dealing with racism against visibly different races, there’s a balance that’s necessary between talking about the topic and not. If you didn’t mention the topic for long enough to have everyone forget the current stereotypes, then new ones would form here from visits to the foreign country or immigrants coming here. If you talk too much about the topic then it can make everyone tense and nervous when it comes up, and that makes it difficult to forget about race. I think in the end it comes down to people being rational, letting go of the past, and being able to think and act freely that will fix the problem. Having a dialogue on the topic can help to guide people, but too much will create too much fear and constraints to make the problem go away.
Robert says:
July 13th, 2009 at 10:19 pmPeople suffering negative stereotypes and discrimination might be hoping it will all be forgotten and buried, but the people doing the hating will not. So just shutting up about it will not help.
Taking the burakumin problem for example, there is still widespread discrimination against them in Japan. By publishing what they thought was a historical map Google failed to realize that thanks to this ongoing discrimination a majority of ethnically burakumin are still living in these areas or listing them in their passports and cv’s. These areas have virtually no non-burakumin and by making this known to the general public you will only help the identification of these areas and these families. Apart from the very real discrimination they recieve on a daily basis, this will also damage property values and local businesses, making it even more difficult for the people living there.
Descendants of Burakumin in Japan still have a markedly lower general income, a lower life expectancy, much lower levels of education and thanks to double whammy of money and geography, it doesn’t look like this problem will go away even in the coming few generations.
It is easy for us as intellectual, mobile, bilingual or more, educated people to say “just move away”, but most people aren’t that strong, or that mobile.
But I do wish it was that simple, just stop talking about it and make the problem go away.
Bill says:
February 28th, 2010 at 5:31 amIm sure you have a point that bigotry and discrimination is created and recreated just by talking about, but it runs deep, so to get rid of it you’d need to get people to stop talking entirely, go totally silent. Alternatvly get everyone to talk about racist bigot stuff all the time, constantly, that might work too
J says:
March 21st, 2010 at 5:01 pmYeah- there is a lot of history behind the discrimination against Jews, there is a certain separation due to religious practice and not having a homeland that contributed to that. The problem is, people may stop talking about race relations publicly, but privately it will never stop. It would be perpetuated and perhaps magnified without a public discourse for people to check other people’s assumptions. For instance, the public sentiment before WWII was against Jews for ‘controlling money’ as many became bankers. The (often life-threatening) discrimination that Jews faced in previous eras forced them to move around a lot and thus learn a mobile trade, such as banking. Previous discrimination and its results weren’t talked about – so there were just all these bankers that happened to be Jews. This lack of discussion about *why* there were so many Jews in banking led many people to assume that there was some sort of conspiracy, when really it was just one of the few mobile jobs open to Jews. Similarly with gypsies, people with no homeland have always been associated with mobile jobs (banking, fixing things, jewelry making, entertainment, etc.) with no discourse as to how things got that way.
J says:
March 21st, 2010 at 5:02 pmAlso, you’d need to destroy a lot of books…
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