Dominant minority

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A dominant minority, also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants, is a group that has overwhelming political, economic or cultural dominance in a country or region despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group which is defined along racial, national, religious or cultural group that holds disproportionate power.

White minority rule describes a situation where whites, comprising the minority of inhabitants, lead countries where nonwhite populations are the majority of inhabitants. White minority rule was associated with legal segregation (apartheid) in South Africa but not in Rhodesia or the Portuguese colonial territories. In these countries the franchise was extended to nonwhites on a qualified basis.

The term was principally (though not entirely) used in southern Africa, especially in the Republic of South Africa (before and during the policy of Apartheid) and in Rhodesia (before and during the rule of the Rhodesian Front). Many in the local nonwhite populations tended to favor Majority Rule, a term which the white minority tended to describe as Black Majority Rule.

White minority rule ended in these countries through a combination of attacks by nonwhite groups; peaceful protests by nonwhites; widespread international moral, political and financial pressure, including from majority-white countries; and changing attitudes within the white minorities themselves.

It can also be said that the white minority in South America is a dominant minority. However, the key differences between the situation in South America and the situation in South Africa is that there were no strict legal barriers enforcing segregation in South American societies. Furthermore, there was greater intermarriage between the white minority and the other communities in the continent.

Some scholars argue that white minority rule exists within the international system and term this phenomenon Global Apartheid. [1]

[edit] More examples of dominant minorities

Other examples of dominant minorities that have been said to have existed in the past are the Dutch in Indonesia, Germans in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Anglo-Irish (Protestants) in Ireland, Russians in Soviet Central Asia (for current status see Russians in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan Russians and Russian diaspora), the Tutsis in Rwanda, and Burundi, Huwala in the Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf, Alawis in Syria, Sunnis in Saddam Hussein-era Iraq, and Anglos in pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec, Canada.

There are more cases of situations where a minority group has had disproportionate representation in economically-powerful positions and has achieved higher incomes than the majority community. However, in these situations, these groups may not have had the political, social and cultural power that other dominant minorities have had.

The most commonly cited examples of minorities that may have had economic power and influence in a society but lacked political dominance and often suffered as a result are: the South Asians in East Africa and Chinese in Indonesia and Malaysia, see Market-dominant minority.

[edit] See also

• White African
• Anglo-African
• Whites in Zimbabwe
• Whites in South Africa
• Market-dominant minority
• Model minority
• Russians in Kazakhstan
• Russian diaspora
• Serbs in Kosovo

[edit] References

• Gibson, Richard. African Liberation Movements: Contemporary Struggles against White Minority Rule (Institute of Race Relations: Oxford University Press, London, 1972). ISBN 0-19-218402-4
• Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7
• Johnson, Howard and Watson, Karl (eds.). The white minority in the Caribbean (Wiener Publishing, Princeton, NJ, 1998). ISBN 976-8123-10-9, 1558761616
• Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Doubleday, New York, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50302-4