Colonial -Isms and COVID-19

Abstract

Colonial societies have granted privileges and social benefits to a select few. Colonial hierarchical tenets elevated the importance of assigned, artificially constructed group membership in order to determine who was entitled to those entitlements. Outgroup membership has been defined by biased and stereotyped classifications referred to as “-isms” in this book (e.g., ableism, ageism, heterosexism, racism, sexism). People assigned to inferior -ism groups have been treated as second class citizens or worse during the history of these colonial nations. Furthermore, colonial ingroups have effectively used strategies to generate animosity between outgroups in those societies, such as colonial splitting, to further disempower those groups and protect personal privilege. As a result of the -ism classifications, minoritized groups entered the COVID-19 pandemic highly vulnerable and with significant disadvantage. Bias and discrimination targeting minoritized people hampered pandemic response and treatment in those communities. Colonial leaders found value and political gain in blaming minoritized groups and using colonial splitting across the spectra of -isms to their strategic advantage. Colonial hierarchies have resulted in significant damage to the psychological well-being of those nations, leaving all citizens vulnerable to the pandemics of the future.