Systematic disadvantage drives minorities to form separate organizations and class identity

Evidence

For the moment, we can note that both individual mobility and some forms of social creativity can work to reduce intergroup conflict over scarce resources—though with different implications. The former is destructive of subordinate-group solidarity and provides no antidote to negative social identity at a group level. The latter may restore or create a positive self-image but, it can be surmised, at the price either of a collective repression of objective deprivation or, perhaps, of spurious rivalry with some other deprived group. It is interesting in this context that the French Canadians, having recently gained a more assertive identity, are now apparently more disparaging of other minority groups than are the English Canadians (Berry et al., 1977). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2751 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Scholars have explained the dearth of alliances among racial minorities through processes of social identification. Sociologists, such as Blumer (1958), have focused on beliefs about the rights and resources that group members are entitled to based on their group’s perceived social standing and past injustices (see also Bobo & Hutchings, 1996); members of a minority group may believe that they have been uniquely oppressed and demand commensurate redress for their particular group. Psychologists, most notably social identity theorists, have emphasized the processes through which identification with social categories induces intergroup behavior, with mere membership in a group driving in-group favoritism (e.g., Tajfel, Billing, Bundy, & Flament, 1971). Still others have linked interracial competition to group size, suggesting that members of numerical minorities display both higher in-group identification and more intergroup discrimination (e.g., Leonardelli & Brewer, 2001). — Chen-Bo Zhong, Adam D. Galinsky, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Negational racial identity and…, 7 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ethnic identity choices are constrained by socially defined categories carrying unequal advantage — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 941; Gaining assertive identity can make minority groups disparage other minorities — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2751; Structural barriers drove minorities to reject ethnic identity for radical racial identity — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 52 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Gaining assertive identity can make minority groups disparage other minorities #complicates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2751
• Minority groups each claim unique oppression, blocking cross-group alliances #complicates (0.72) — Chen-Bo Zhong, Adam D. Galinsky, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Negational racial identity and…, 7