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Post date: Jan 20, 2019 11:53:55 AM
1. Starting Point
I started investigating this theme because many people called minorities are subjected to absurd treatment such as discrimination and violence due to being called "minority" and to lose their calling. Because if there weren’t the concept of ‘minority’, there aren’t people who are called ‘minority’. We thought that we could resolve discrimination and violence ahead.
Originally I was interested in things like "transgender and education" because my transgender friends in high school had been treated unfairly at school. In the Introductory Seminar in the first grade, I wrote a report titled "Would it be acceptable for transgender boys to enter girls college?" and I learned more about "transgender" in the second grade and continuing the survey on "transgender students and education" in the seminar this year, looking at the "treatment on the school side of the transgendered students", and "schools for the transgender students". That became my entrance of thinking about ‘minority’, and if I hadn’t think about that I couldn’t have met the people who change my mind. To that point my interest was sexual minorities represented by transgender and LGBT, but I participated in a 4-day seminar at United Nations University on the theme of "What Can We Do to Realize a Sustainable Society?: A Gender & Sexuality Perspective" held during the second year students' summer vacation.
At that seminar, contact with people who are actually referred to as "minorities" indeed gave me a chance to think critically and from a different perspective about the concept of "minority". For example, I made friends with a gay person who is as old as I and university student. I had never had friends who is gay until then, this largely change my mind.
I think that the concept of "minority", and the specific words (for example each of LGBT) that refer to it as well, may create discrimination. Because that word is reminiscent of "a point different from a person" of a minority (a group called that person) In today's society, "being different from people" is often neglected, so it leads to discrimination. Neglecting difference suggests treating everybody the same so not referring to, or ignoring, minorities. So, after attending the UNU seminar, I changed the focus of my research from transgender students and education to the existence of minority and its concept. In this report, I will talk from three points and one opposing view.
2. Thinking About the Concept of 'Minorities'
My second semester research changed from the focus of transgender and education in the first semester and focused on the existence of minority and its concept. First, let's look at the work of various researchers and activists mentioned about the concept of minority, values similar to those obtained in the seminar held in the summer.
Professor Kazuko Tanaka of the International Christian University said, "Two different factors make people minorities." For example, if the elements "American" and "live in Japan" are combined, it will become a minority "Americans in Japan". Furthermore she said that "Minority is not a matter of superiority or inferiority of a number, it is a matter of power relations". This means that major and minor are inevitably minor (minority) when the major group is winning even if the minor does not have numerical disadvantages in power relationship.
Milton Diamond of the University of Hawaii also says "nature likes diversity, society hates that." In other words, he says that "diversity" is preferred as a way of nature, but society says that society refuses and likes the same thing. This may be the basis for discrimination against minorities. In this way, diversity is recognized as exceptional to buy and is definite, the word minority is a negative recognition.
3. Approaches To Diversity Which Don't Focus on Minorities
So what kind of approaches are effective to actually fade the term minority? I propose two approaches.
One is to replace the word which is a concept which can be a minority with another word. For example, although the term, LGBT, is now becoming socially recognized, I think that this word might make people recognize that sexual minority is a minority. If this word was spread to eliminate discrimination it seems that the fundamental problem is not solved. Because the word LGBT further classified and segmented sexual minorities, the recognition that it is "minority" becomes stronger, as a result discrimination (and its consciousness) does not go away. In order to solve this, I think that it is effective to paraphrase LGBT into the word SOGI which is an abbreviation for Sexual Orientation Gender Identity. SOGI is a term that collectively refers to sexual orientation and sexual recognition, and can be used in the same way as the word "gender". Then the perception that sexual minorities are "minorities" will diminish and discrimination will disappear. This is the same approach as Political Correctness which is a concept aimed at eliminating discriminatory expression.
The other is a teaching-based approach. I thought that educating about diversity could dilute the concept of minority and reduce consciousness of people as minorities’ discrimination. Also, since the place called school is a diverse field where many children gather, I think that it is suitable in that meaning. This diversity education can be thought from two viewpoints. One is education focusing on "interaction with people" and the other is education focusing on the point of "what is yourself". I will introduce concrete cases that I am practicing about each. Let's look now at some actual examples of these educational approaches.
4. Examples of Specific Educational Approaches
First of all, at the Toyota Higashi Elementary School in Aichi Prefecture, Professor Takashi Koda carried out "Education as a diversity education that made use of everyday activities" with the theme of "relationship with people". Mr. Kota first made children think of each of the merits and disadvantages of "different things" and "same things", sometimes fancily as an introduction leading to diversity. Then he let the children experience various diversities, such as world culture and scientific diversity, and conveyed their wonderfulness. In doing so, he asked children their opinions and impressions and talked about it to make them understand the difference with others. In addition, he made classes to translate bad aspects into good ones as children's good and bad aspects as "personality", and let them recognize that different personality is not bad for each person. Ultimately, he encouraged the students to make their individuality take advantage of themselves, and the students built a class in which all of them as individuals could make use of themselves.
Another example that makes me think about "who I am" is a class I joined for college students who are considering working in the classroom or social welfare workplace, that is taught by Peter Rinko, a full-time professor at the Department of Human Development at Washington State University University. Rinko first of all made the students recognize the discrimination consciousness among them using a potential federation test. This test is a test to find your discrimination consciousness from several personal thinking questions. After that, he let them think about the cultural background of the students themselves and think about what influence is given to people with other cultures by their background like “where are my ancestor comes here” or history about them. Finally make them write their autobiography, and let them draw a family crest (like on the left) representing their family And deepened the knowledge about each group of people in fact to look the documents, graphs and so. As an end point, I thought about how to communicate with a group different from themselves.
Professor Porter also mentioned the need for "two-way communication" between people themselves and the other person, and said that a society in which people can respect each other is necessary. After this educational program was over, the students were able to say that many students had the impression that "the world view changed", "I was interested in different cultures" and "I wanted to know more". This view has the advantage that you can change consciousness only by yourself in that it does not directly focus on minorities. Also, the risk of treating minorities as minorities also disappears.
When comparing the above two examples, both is superior and both has a good side. The educational approach which emphasizes "relationship with people" is suitable for practice and the effect is visible socially. The "Facing Your Own" approach can be tackled by even one person and can easily change consciousness. The participants' opinion is that if we can create an educational method that combines the two methods more efficiently and efficiently eliminates discrimination consciousness, then the concept of "minority" will fade away.
5. Opposing Views
However, sometimes we call ourselves "minorities" if we really want a specific group (and individuals that belong to it) to be called "minorities". That is the case that the group and individuals consider "minority" as one of self expressions as identity, or when feeling the merit of being "minority". Certainly, having a name "minority" makes it easy to express yourself. For example, rather than saying "a man who likes men," the concept of LGBT is now well known, so it is easier to say who said "gay". In addition, even if the current minority group wishes to inform the public about its existence, they may spontaneously express themselves using specific terms and think positively in case they want to be recognized. Again, instead of daring to avoid minorities, you should use expressions that correspond to specific minorities. However, as many of the minorities with names are not penetrated into the world like the LGBT, we think that an approach like SOGI is necessary to eliminate discrimination consciousness as well. Also, there is a merit in being "minority", so if you are self-naming "minority" for that reason, it is certainly possible that there are advantages, but do not isolate it as "minority". The person who is supposed to be "such a person" should finally be able to approach each person. And fading "minority" is a method that can respond to society and people's way of life that will continue to change in the future.
6. Conclusion
I talked about the theme of "to eliminate minorities" and proposed the approach of "SOGI" "diversity education", but in fact it is known to the educators, their students, "majority" who is living in society There is a need. Because society will not change unless practiced, the concept of "minority" will remain, as discrimination will not go away. However, since there is no established way to tell it to many people and to enlighten it, thinking about it is a future task.Since some of the approaches I showed in this report are still practiced only in a narrow field, we believe that if we can do this in a wide field of society as a whole, we can solve the problem.
7. References
「アイデンティティスペクトグラム」True Colors - Be Yourself Blog, 04 August, 2012.
「日常的な活動を生かした多様性教育の実施」Takashi Koda,July, 2015.
「国連グローバルセミナー」United nations University,2018.
「チャイルドリサーチレポート『ダイバーシティー教育の実践』」Rinko Boder, 06 January, 2016.
「LGBTではなくなぜSOGIなのか」HUFFPOST, 02 May, 2018.
「LGBT特設サイト虹色vol3田中かず子」NHK heart net,16 May,2009/
「Milton Diamond （Hawaii university)」Pacific Center for Sex and Society,16 January,2016
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