Around the world, dominant majorities increasingly see themselves as imperiled minorities, says The New York Times.
And that dynamic — sometimes called a majority with a minority complex — is thought to be a major factor in the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, religious nationalism in Asia, and white nationalist terrorism in the United States and New Zealand, the paper says.
Demographic change, global interconnectedness and even the rise of democracy can make majorities feel that their dominance is endangered, leading to fear of, and sometimes attacks on, minorities.
A “classic, cautionary case” is Northern Ireland, the Times says.
When communal tensions turned into the outright fighting known as the Troubles in the late 1960s, Northern Ireland’s Protestants were numerically, politically and economically dominant. But they were a minority on the island as a whole, feeding a sense of demographic peril.
“The basic fear of Protestants in Northern Ireland is that they will be outbred by Roman Catholics,” Terence O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s prime minister, said at the outbreak of the conflict. “It is as simple as that.”
“The basic fear of Protestants in Northern Ireland is that they will be outbred by Roman Catholics,” Terence O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s prime minister, said at the outbreak of the conflict. “It is as simple as that.”
Now these dynamics are rising globally, and not just when one group is a majority nationally and a minority regionally, says the Times.
Asked in 2013 about Buddhist violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority that the Times says culminated in genocide, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s de facto leader, responded by warning of “global Muslim power.”
As democracy became the global norm, dominant ethnic groups found themselves under growing pressure to share power with minorities, and they even occasionally lost an election.
Anxiety around losing status can show up as fears, however unfounded, of becoming outnumbered. In countries with weak institutions, that can lead to violence, possibly contributing to the stall in democracy’s once-speedy spread.
Anxiety around losing status can show up as fears, however unfounded, of becoming outnumbered. In countries with weak institutions, that can lead to violence, possibly contributing to the stall in democracy’s once-speedy spread.
“We often see this phenomenon at moments of increasing democratization and increasing enfranchisement,” says Kate Cronin-Furman, a University College London political scientist, citing “horrible violence against the Rohingya breaking out at a time of increased democratization in Burma.”
In Europe, right-wing populist parties like the Alternative for Germany and France’s National Front talk about Muslims soon outnumbering non-Muslims in Europe and imposing Shariah law.
A leader of Vox, the Spanish far-right party that just won its first Parliamentary seats, talked at a September rally of an “Islamist invasion” and backs policies to increase Spanish birthrates.
A leader of Vox, the Spanish far-right party that just won its first Parliamentary seats, talked at a September rally of an “Islamist invasion” and backs policies to increase Spanish birthrates.
And for whites who see the decline of white dominance as destabilizing, any increase in the minority population is perceived as an attack, says the Times.
A growing body of research suggests that this sentiment may be driving significant political change in the United States, which is projected to become “majority minority” — with whites less than half the population — by 2050.
A growing body of research suggests that this sentiment may be driving significant political change in the United States, which is projected to become “majority minority” — with whites less than half the population — by 2050.
What can you and I do?
For one thing, we can be aware of the nature of our fears.
“We regress to tribalism when afraid," says psychiatrist and neuroscientist Arash Javanbakht in Psychology Today. "This is an evolutionary advantage that would lead to the group cohesion and help us fight the other tribes to survive.”
"Tribalism is the biological loophole that many politicians have banked on for a long time: tapping into our fears and tribal instincts,” he says. "Some examples are Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, religious wars and the Dark Ages.”
"To win us, politicians, sometimes with the media’s help, do their best to keep us separated, to keep the real or imaginary ‘others’ just a ‘concept,'" Javanbakht says. Because if we spend time with others, talk to them and eat with them, we will learn that they are like us: humans with all the strengths and weaknesses that we possess.
I’m trained by a neuropsychologist to work with kids, and he points to the research that we can train our brains — and we can retrain them at any age.
When we feel fear of the “other,” we can remind ourselves that we’re all part of the human family. We can pursue compassion over conflict.
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