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A dominant minority, also known as alien elites if they are recent immigrants, is a group that has overwhelming political, economic or cultural dominance in a country or region despite representing a small fraction of the overall population (a demographic minority). The term is most commonly used to refer to an ethnic group which is defined along racial, national, religious or cultural lines and that holds a disproportionate amount of power.

White minority rule describes a situation where Whites, comprising the minority of inhabitants in a given region or territory, lead countries where non-White populations are the majority of inhabitants. White minority rule was associated with legal segregation (apartheid) in South Africa but not in Rhodesia or the Portuguese colonial territories. In these countries, the franchise was extended to non-Whites on a qualified basis.

The term is mostly applied to in southern Africa, especially in the Republic of South Africa before and during the policy of Apartheid and in Rhodesia before and during the rule of the Rhodesian Front. Many in the local non-White populations tended to favor Majority Rule, a term which the White minority tended to describe as Black Majority Rule.

White minority rule ended in these countries through a combination of violent attacks by non-White groups; peaceful protests by non-Whites; widespread international moral, political and financial pressure, including from majority-White countries; and changing attitudes within the White minorities themselves.

Some scholars argue that White minority rule exists within the international system and term this phenomenon Global Apartheid. International affairs dominated by whites was notably observed by Thabo Mbeki, who used the term "Global apartheid" famously in a 2002 speech. Anthropologists, such as William Haviland, have written about the power and wealth disparity between whites and the rest of the world's peoples. Of particular note is the fact that 71.3% of world profits are gained by those of European descent (Haviland, 1993).

The dominant minority phenomenon in Africa was not limited to Whites, however. The most famous example of an inter-African dominant minority is the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi.

More examples of dominant minorities

Other examples of dominant minorities that have been said to have existed in the past are the Dutch in Indonesia, Germans in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Anglo-Irish (Protestants) in Ireland, Russians in Soviet Central Asia (for current status see Russians in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan Russians and Russian diaspora), the Tutsis in Rwanda, and Burundi, Huwala in the Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf, Alawis in Syria, Sunnis in Saddam Hussein-era Iraq, Bedouin in Jordan and Anglos in pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec and African Americans in the United States.

Also, French in England (between Stephen de Blois and Richard d'Anjou) and Germans in Great Britain (Philip von Habsburg, then on from William van Nassau until the present Elizabeth von Wettin) were and are the usual conditions for monarchy in the British Isles with respect to ancestral ethnicity (since the Middle Ages), in contrast to that of the people. Although there were Welsh (Tudor) and Scottish (Stuart) rulers of England and Ireland, they were generally considered part of the same (mostly Anglophone) community of islanders, rather than foreign, or naturalised; this is what they share in common to the earlier English dynasties, having been domestic in the period from which nation-states were formed, upon which the later and more ethnically different rulers from France and Germany came to dominate. Over time and into the present, parliamentary democracy came to be more ethnically representative of the people, in that native British islanders represented themselves under the aegis of foreign-origin dynasties (or these dynasties were there at the natives' good graces, considering current Prime Minister prerogatives), although not necessarily of the quality of life or socio-economic backgrounds which a majority of the people have come from.

There are more cases of situations where a minority group has had disproportionate representation in economically-powerful positions and has achieved higher incomes than the majority community. However, in these situations, these groups may not have had the political, social and cultural power that other dominant minorities have had. The most commonly cited examples of minorities that may have had economic power and influence in a society but lacked political dominance and often suffered as a result are: the South Asians in East Africa, Chinese in Indonesia and Malaysia, and Jews in Europe and the Middle East; see Market-dominant minority.

See also

• White African
• Anglo-African
• Whites in Namibia
• Whites in South Africa
• Whites in Zimbabwe
• Market-dominant minority
• Model minority
• Russians in Kazakhstan
• Russian diaspora
• Tyranny of the minority

References

• Barzilai, Gad. Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003). ISBN 978-0-472-03079-8
• Gibson, Richard. African Liberation Movements: Contemporary Struggles against White Minority Rule (Institute of Race Relations: Oxford University Press, London, 1972). ISBN 0-19-218402-4
• Russell, Margo and Martin. Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979). ISBN 0-521-21897-7
• Johnson, Howard and Watson, Karl (eds.). The white minority in the Caribbean (Wiener Publishing, Princeton, NJ, 1998). ISBN 976-8123-10-9, 1558761616
• Chua, Amy. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (Doubleday, New York, 2003). ISBN 0-385-50302-4
• Haviland, William. Cultural Anthropology. (Vermont: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993). p. 250-252. ISBN 0155085506.

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