Categorisation and minoritisation

Abstract

The disproportionate mortality of COVID-19 and brutality of protective institutions has shifted anti-racism discourses into the mainstream. 1 Increased reckoning over categorisations of people demonstrate that racial categories, while imprecise, fluid, time and context-specific, embody hierarchical power. We interrogate categorisations used in the UK, South Africa and the USA; their origins and impact. We emphasise needing to recognise commonality of power structures globally,while acknowledging specificity in local contexts. In identifying such commonality, we encourage use of the term ‘minoritised’ as a universal alternative.