Marginalized. Being ignored by society
This month is often called the month of Awareness towards Minorities or Marginalized identities. As we bring more attention to this topic I think it’s important that we express what we mean when we say “marginalized”?
What does it mean to “be marginalized”?
I love this question and let’s bring some curiosity to exploring this term.
To be marginalized according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is, “to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group”.
When I think about margins I remember my high school days of being in school, listening to a teacher translate or make meaning of something in the textbook that we were reading and then taking my own notes and writing it on the side. Writing what felt significant, what I needed to remember what was, what was resaid in a way that made more sense. When I had a test coming up, I remember scanning through the pages, finding those notes helpful as a way to remember what was really said in the lines that didn’t make sense to me from just reading it.
Right now I am studying the Yoga Sutras, a wisdom text, with a cohort. We are in year 2 of doing a slow, long, steady teach of the Sutras, making our way into Book 2. I haven’t been in a classroom in years and yet when I show up to this group, there is something comforting about learning, about letting myself be taught and of having a teacher. One of the phrases that often comes up is there is much more in the text that you need, more than just reading it to know or understand, you need a teacher to walk you through the text. So as I’m taught, I do what I did again in high school. I write in the margins. I take notes of what isn’t being said in the text. Of what needs to be further explored, further taken in. In my own words and in the words I hear. I write in the margins, they become more meaningful at times as they take up space because they are in a way more present. They are my words written from a place of understanding, or not understanding but come back and future sit with this. They stick out to me. When I flip back to my readings, I notice my eyes are always drawn to those words, that helps click my memory into what the text means for me. They are in fact significant, MEANING-FULL- that is full of meaning.
"Marginality is much more than a site of deprivation, it is also the site of radical possibility, a space of resistance." - Bell Hooks
My rebelness wants to defy this idea that marginality is “unimportant or powerless”. Because to me, like in my studies, the margins have actually felt the most significant and always been where my eyes have moved towards. They have been the words that stick with me, that I need to come back to for further learning, that matter because they help. So for me that holds such power and importance.
But I understand I am not everyone and I am not the culture in which we live in. The culture that systemically treats the margins as though it doesn’t exist. It’s like looking at a text and saying that is all that is there, there is nothing more, don’t see anything outside of what is being said here, it’s all you need to know. How limiting that is to the human experience. When we constrain and limit what can be experienced. When we try to make everything the same and who then benefits? So nothing more is written or said, your words don’t matter, your individual experience doesn’t matter, the individual way you are experiencing the text doesn’t matter. Stick to what’s only there as you read it.
I recently ran a Teens Yoga Group for a group of teens that are in foster care and live in a residential home. After we did a little movement and pranayama (breathing) together to help support the nervous system, we did a process group about what is beautiful and meaningful to them. In the beginning everyone shared ideas such as being tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, no pimples, straight hair, being funny and charismatic, intelligent, and having cool clothes. We all agreed that many of these ideas came from culture and social media, tik toc, instagram, the internet. What does that do to you, I asked and wondered. How does this message make you feel about yourself? Does it actually make you feel beautiful? Does it make you feel less than? Does it make you feel like you are on the “margins”, where you don’t belong or fit in?
Radical possibility Bell Hooks says. A space of resistance. What if the margins not only mattered, but actually were what drew our eyes, our attention.
Ways to bring this home:
If you are someone who carries privilege, here are some ways you can explore this further:
Who am I surrounded by? Are all my friends, family people who think, believe, share a similar culture as I do? What are ways that I can make more effort to expose myself to be-friending and getting to know someone from a different culture?
What fears do I have surrounding befriending someone of a different culture?
Am I willing to step back to allow someone who is marginalized in our culture to gain more access? What would I “lose” in order to do that and am I ok with that?
For those who identify as BIPOC, here are ways you could explore this further:
What ways internally are parts of me marginalized or felt as though they can’t exist? Some examples could be shame on certain areas of your identity connected to culture like the way you pronounce words, your manners. Not feeling like you cannot share openly about traditions, food you eat/enjoy, etc.
What ways externally do I experience feeling marginalized, not noticed, or affirmed? Some examples could be how your name is mis-pronounced, the food you eat not being available, not seeing others that carry your cultural identity in leadership positions, not having access to the same resources as someone of privilege, etc.
How does this impact how you are able to show up in the world? Do you avoid certain spaces because you feel like an outsider or don’t feel recognized or a sense of belonging? Or are you exhausted when you do show up to spaces because of the emotional toll it takes on you?
These are difficult questions to explore and are not meant for you to have to do it alone. As always if you are wanting support as you explore these areas, I invite you to reach out. I’d love to help support you on your journey or connect you with resources along the way.
And remember owning your voice and living in freedom is a daily practice.
