Groupcism as an Acceptable Type of Discrimination

ABSTRACT Sometimes I am with a group of people but feel socially distant because their activities make me think, ‘I don't belong here!’ However, the distance between me and them is not created by intentional acts of exclusion. It stems from my non‐participation in their chosen activities—the things other members of the in‐group do for fun—for personal reasons. Although we share a lot in common, such as being supporters of the same football club, staff at the same institution, students at the same university or having shared religious beliefs, we differ in the things we do for fun; not all of us are smokers, not all of us drink beer/alcohol, and not all of us speak the same languages. The feeling of social distance that one experiences when excluded from activities enjoyed by members of one's in‐group is a form of discrimination. In this perspective paper, I expose this type of discrimination as acceptable within in‐groups for two reasons: (1) the general lack of discriminatory intentions towards victims and (2) the spatial situatedness of the discriminatory activities. I call this acceptable type of discrimination ‘Groupcism’. I argue that groupcism is regarded as an acceptable form of discrimination not primarily because of the two reasons stated above, but because of another two: (1) other activities that the victims of groupcism share with the members of their in‐group; and (2) the agency to opt in and out of the sub‐group activities that engender groupcism .