Global Majority Ethnicities (GME)

[WhoAreYouTalkingTo]

OK, so I didn't know where to post this, so I've just gone with here, it may not be the best place for it. I am not an expert in this so apologies if I get any terminology wrong.

I work with some UK based charities and I have noticed that some instead of talking about ethnic minorities, they have started to use the term GME. They always then describe why they use this, which is that people other than white people are the majority globally and so we should describe them as such. To a certain extent I agree with this, white people are a minority group globally, but these aren't global charities. They are charities that are fighting for equality for what is, in the UK a minority group.

For some reason, this feels a bit like an own goal. It gives racist white people a platform to say "we are the minority, why should I give allowances for people who are the majority" at best, and at worst it gives the same people the opportunity to platform themselves as the oppressed. It gives rise for white people who are the majority in the UK to demand concessions. For example, if you were talking about prisons, you could say "black people are a majority ethnicity and yet white people are therefore overrepresented in prisons". Which, in the UK, is the opposite of the truth. Black people are massively over represented in prisons.

I feel like I'm missing something big but can't work out what it is?

Racists're gonna be racist, whatever terminology you use. They complain about 'minorities getting everything', they'll complain about 'being outnumbered/endangered' by the majority.

Might as well use an appropriate term as they're going to be like that, whatever is used.

I prefer the term Global majority as a Black British women, there's no fighting with racists it doesn't matter the term

Maybe they feel it’s empowering.

It also lumps all non white people together, only characterising them by their lack of whiteness. Within that group there are going to be some very small ethnic groups, and ethnic groups with tension between them. But they’re just massed together as one thing.

I think it’s stupid unless you are working in a global context. If are in the UK, black and brown and other people are ethnic minorities and that is the source of most of the issues these charities aim to address. ‘Global majority ethnicity’ is invented by an academic industry that needs to perpetuate itself by coming up with this stuff.

I get it could be empowering, but what it makes people feel could materially take away from what they experience? I'm not saying I'm right, I'm actually trying to learn here.

It sounds like a another BAME to me. People seem desperate for a way to say 'non whites', then tie themselves in knots trying not to sound racist.

It doesn't imo take away from my experiences it is empowering

I mean might possibly experience in the future, not their life experience. It could make things more racist or reduce opportunities.

I’ve also had this conversation at work recently. I work a lot on trying to improve health inequity. The term ‘global majority’, to me, dismisses the crux of the problem; the inequities which are experienced in the U.K. precisely because people are in a minority. It’s also a homogenous term and misses the granularity of describing different ethnic groups.

I also see though that as one person this is not my call and ultimately I want to work with descriptors that people feel happy to identify with. When working with a particular community we will obviously follow their lead on that. We can (and do) use the term ‘global majority’ whilst at the same time making it clear that in the settings we are in, there are significant inequities experienced by people from the global majority.

I agree. When I get referred to as a ‘minority’ at work for being a woman (it’s a male dominated industry), I always point out that women make up 50% of the population and are therefore surely not a minority. Yes, we make up a smaller percentage of the workforce, but only because the route to this industry has historically been difficult for women to get into.

Being classed as a minority at work seems to just perpetuate the culture. They can make a token effort to be inclusive but ultimately they don’t have to do much as it’s not affecting the majority of their workforce.

I am not a minority.

It’s all context surely. In the UK ‘ethnic minority’ appeared to be OK for a few years until some people found a way for that to be considered offensive.
Why would anyone be discussing global ethnicity? What is that context?
POC? As in the US? Problematic as it treats white as the ‘outside’ group and white people are still a colour. And what about minority white groups such as Irish Travellers?
Interestingly I have just had to complete an EDIA for my Civil Service unit and ‘minority’ doesn’t work as we are 75% South Asian.
What about ‘regional minority’? ‘Under represented people’? Disadvantaged ethnic groups’? Again how would that work for my EDIA? My S Asian colleagues do not appear to be in any of those categories.

Well I guess most people understand the word Global so will understand the difference between a minority in a country and as aposed to in the world.

It seems a bit Alice in Wonderland confusing to to me, if these are Uk charities focused on the issues of people who belong to ethnic minorities in the uk.

I’d guess it will go the same way as BAME which also came out of academia.

for it to work it would need to be qualified with something like people of the global majority who are under represented in this area / in the U.K., perhaps?

This is my point. You need to qualify it, otherwise people don't know what you are talking about and tbh I actually don't think a large majority of people know that whites are globally the minority— for a lot of people it isn't self explanatory

I don’t understand - does this term refer to a specific ethnicity that is the most populous globally? Which a quick google tells me is Han Chinese?

Or is it lumping every non-white ethnicity into one? And who is deciding what non-white is?

Sounds like absolute nonsense to me. What has a black Ghanaian got to do with a Han Chinese? Or a Maori to do with a Roma?