January 14, 2010“Rankism:” A new favorite word. And unfavorite practice.
My friend Evan told me about the word “rankism” today. Here’s what wikipedia says about it.
Rankism is a term coined by physicist, educator, and citizen diplomat Robert W. Fuller. Fuller has defined rankism as: “abusive, discriminatory, or exploitative behavior towards people who have less power because of their lower rank in a particular hierarchy”[1]. Fuller claims that rankism also describes the abuse of the power inherent in superior rank, with the view that rank-based abuse underlies many other phenomena such as bullying, racism, sexism, and homophobia.
What an interesting perspective! Like other biases, it can be so subtle we don’t see it. Or so pronounced we think it’s a given.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
