February 25, 2004

• Last week, I attended a professional conference where I was privileged to hear a wonderful speaker on the topic of marginalization. Marginalization is the act of placing people on the periphery of a social system. There are several criteria for marginalizing, including social status, job, educational level, religion, and ethnic group.

  Marginalization is different from exclusion. When someone is excluded, they know it. They are left out. They are not part of the “in crowd.” There is definition to that role. When people are marginalized, they are allowed to stand around the edges and admire those who are really included. They dream of being part of that group and they may think it is possible, but they are usually wrong. The speaker gave an excellent example of marginalization from his own life. When he was a teenager, he tried out for the basketball team. He worked very hard and he made it through several rounds of cuts in the process of forming the final team. The coach announced that he had to make three more cuts. The team continued to practice. Eventually, the speaker and two other potential team members were called in to the coach’s office. Instead of being told that they would not make the team, they were told that they were the players who would have been cut, but that there were three extra uniforms, so the coach was going to allow them to be on the team. They had been marginalized. In effect, they were told that they were really not quite good enough, but they remained anyway. It spoiled the experience of basketball.

  One of the points this speaker made was that our society demands marginal people. There are certain occupations that are seen as not quite as desirable, so members of those groups are often not incuded in the “upper crust,” yet our social structure could not function without those roles. Examples of occupations whose members are often marginalized include maintenance and janitorial workers, restaurant wait staff, public transportation workers, and housekeeping staff. Some people make careers out of those jobs, but many see them as transitional, working in those positions while they are attending school or preparing in some other way for a more desirable job.

  It’s interesting to me that the workers who are marginalized vary from culture to culture and the extent of that marginalization varies. In the United States, being a waiter is not seen as a high career goal. It is often a “filler” job until something better comes along. In most restaurants here, waiters and waitresses do not receive much training. Their service often shows it, too. In some countries of the world, waiters are very respected. They go through an extensive training period before they are allowed to work, and then they begin as busboys and must work their way up to being waiters. Achieving that status is an event. There is pride in providing smooth and unobtrusive service and the skill is respected.

  The world would be a more benevolent place if everyone appreciated the skills and talents which all people possess. Some people are very good at doing that; some just look down their noses at certain people or just don’t see them at all. And wouldn’t it be nice if we could all look past all the other things we use to categorize people, if color, religion, ethnic group, sexual orientation, etc. just didn’t matter?

  Are the people who are marginalized really marginal? I don’t think so. I suspect that everyone marginalizes others. I think it’s something that we can only see when it is being done by others or when it is happening to us. There are probably few people who are not marginalized at some times and in some ways. It’s very painful when it happens. If it happens a lot, it can do permanent damage. I wonder why we cannot stop doing it?

  Wouldn’t it be nice if we were kinder
  Then we wouldn’t hurt each other so
  And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
  In the kind of world where we belong

  You know its gonna make it that much better
  When we can acept each other and stay together

  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
  In the morning when the day is new
  And appreciate the many talents
  Of all we meet the whole day through

  Happy times together we’ve been spending
  I wish that that they were neverending
  Wouldn’t it be nice

  Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
  Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do
  We could be accepting
  And then we’d be happy

  Wouldn’t it be nice

  You know it seems the more we talk about it
  It only makes it worse to live without it
  But lets talk about it
  Wouldn’t it be nice

  (With slight adaptation from Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys)

  • 10:33 am
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