We generally find that there’s no perfect term for what we’re talking about, but at Bookish Brews we like to use “people of the global majority.” And even though there isn’t that precisely perfect term, we believe it matches with our mission and so we can at least take a stab at why we use and prefer the term.

When I was growing up as the only Asian kid in a class full of white kids, I remember so vividly every time we talked about any kind of history of injustice. And I remember so clearly each time we’d talk about how society has historically (because we would never talk about how it’s still happening today) disadvantaged minority groups. And I remember how the class would inevitably turn to me and the one or (maybe) two other BIPOC in the class at the word “minority.”

I spent my entire childhood not only being the only Asian kid surrounded by white kids, but also never seeing anyone who looked like me even in media. In fact, it wasn’t until I was graduated from college that I read a book by an Asian American author about Asian characters. And it feels kind of silly to say now, but up until that point in my life I didn’t even realize we were allowed to tell our own stories. Not here anyway, not in English. And that realization changed my entire life. It’s the foundation for why I believe literature is so important.

If you would have asked me then who the majority was, without hesitation I would have told you white people. I knew that in some far off place there were a ton of people on the other side of the globe that were the majority elsewhere. But I also spent so much of my life desperately trying to learn more about that place and could never find much, because the imperial core doesn’t like when the people who live inside look out. They can’t let you see how our struggles across the world are all connected, after all.

So Who are the Global Majority?

While we find that there is no precisely perfect term for what we mean, at Bookish Brews we use the term people of the global majority. The people of the global majority are loosely defined as Black, Asian, Brown, Indigenous people, or other non-white people who might have been considered “racial or ethnic minorities.” It’s a collective term for us, across the globe, who constitute about 85% of the global population.

People of the global majority is often used instead of other terms such as “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) or “BAME” (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) which are all terms that focus on race alone. Some people say that the global majority are people who’s ancestry reaches back to the Global South, which is generally true, but not all encompassing. It might be more accurate to say that the global majority is made up of everyone who’s ancestry has been disrupted by western hegemony. 

Ultimately, though, who we’re generally trying to talk about when we refer to the global majority is the people who cannot access white privilege.

So What is the Global South?

The term the Global South is a term used as a grouping of countries to denote their relative socioeconomic power. The Global South refers to countries with “developing” economies. They are often characterized by having high levels of poverty, poor infrastructure, high population growth, inadequate education, and more.

Though the term uses the word “south” implying that it’s a geographical definition, the Global South is much more defined by socioeconomic status. Though it may be more accurate to define the defining line by the reach of the globalization of capitalism. Countries in the Global South are often countries that have not converted to capitalism and/or especially ones that have had their economies harmed by western colonialism. The Global South comprises Latin America, most of Asia, Africa, and most of Oceania.

Then, What is the Global North?

In comparison, the Global North is the matching term that refers to the other grouping of countries relative to their socioeconomic status. The Global North is often characterized as countries with high levels of wealth and income, good infrastructure, high levels of education, and more. These countries are what are considered to be “developed” countries, comprised of Europe, North America, and Australia.

On the flip side of colonialism, these were the countries often doing the colonizing or siding & assimilating with the colonizer countries. 

What Happened to First and Third World Countries?

The terms first, second, and third world countries are largely outdated. Very generally, these countries map relatively closely to both the Global South, but they were categorized with different parameters. While Global South is used to refer to socioeconomic status (and often also causally interference from western hegemony), first, second, and third worlds draw their designations from the political landscape of the Cold War.

Though the terms are outdated, we do find it helpful to bring up in this discussion because a lot of people are familiar with the term. When talking about the world like this, you can also start to see what we mean about countries that have been harmed by western imperialism. 

The first world countries are comprised of nations that politically aligned with the Western Bloc of the USA while second world countries comprised countries politically aligned with the Eastern Bloc of Soviet Russia. The third world only referred to non-aligned countries, though over time became synonymous with developing countries. 

It’s worth mentioning that non-aligned countries often became hot spots for proxy wars between the Western and Eastern Bloc, hindering the country’s ability to develop. People often think countries designated as third world countries are struggling to develop, which can lead to a myriad of excuses, reasons, or justifications as to why that is (though these “reasons” are frequently just projecting racism). But many of them were actively harmed by external superpowers.

Though you may still hear these terms, they’re a bit outdated and don’t really have a strict definition anymore. Essentially the world was split between capitalism, communism, and non aligned, but they’ve strayed quite far from their original intent. Without a proper definition and understanding the original definitions, these are far from our preferred terms to use. In fact, they’re so outdated I’ve even run into a few people who didn’t know what the “second world” was at all!

I think it’s also important to note here that while in the USA we are moving away from the terms a bit, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people who live in the Global South take offense to it. It also doesn’t necessarily mean people in the Global South love it either. The Global South is by no means a monolith.

Who are People of Color?

Now that some background has been established, you might be thinking, if you just mean non-white, why don’t you just say “people of color”? The honest answer is we do. We often say POC or BIPOC for a variety of reasons. People are more likely to know what you’re talking about when you say BIPOC and it’s far quicker to say than “people of the global majority” so we do frequently use the terms. They’re not outdated and they’re not wrong, in fact they’re the most common terms and that in itself carries a weight of significance.

However, the term people of color implies the default of whiteness or centering of whiteness. That everyone who is not white are deemed “people of color” and those who are white get to just be “people.” And if white people get to be just “people” it also implies their majority, which is simply not the truth. The west has worked exceedingly hard to center whiteness as the default and as the majority, but the term people of the global majority rejects that notion.

Decentering whiteness

Here at Bookish Brews we work to center systematically marginalized voices, also to reject the notion that whiteness and the people in power should be centered at all times. We choose to use the term people of the global majority as a constant reminder that we are not in fact a “minority” nor is our existence relative to whiteness as a default. We are full people who are the center of our own lives. We do not need to exist on the margins of whiteness and we can break the racist implications of centering whiteness.

People of the global majority as a term is a constant reminder that when we stand together, globally, we are far stronger and far more vast than our language has always implied.

Decentering American Centrism

The last point that I want to make with regards to our use of the term people of the global majority is that it also decenters the USA (who forces their way into the center of literally everything). The USA is inarguably the worlds biggest superpower (read: terrorist). And because of their social, political, economic, and militaristic prevalence on the world stage, combined with their commitment to white supremacy, decentering whiteness also disrupts American centrism.

Not only was the term people of color coined in the USA, it also is used primarily to describe people who identify with the experience of being non-white, or “othered” in a predominantly white society. And while most of my readers and myself are from the USA, that experience of being othered in a predominantly white society is not the experience for the majority of the world.

But Be Cautious of the Erasure of Peoples

While the term people of the global majority is our preferred term at Bookish Brews, I want to circle back to the reminder that there is no precisely perfect term for what we mean. There are flaws in language at all corners, but it’s particularly important to be aware of in social justice work.

Though we are undoubtably stronger together, and though we are all negatively impacted by white supremacy, it’s critical that we also know that we are all affected by it in related but intricately different ways. We must be cautious to use the term people of the global majority (or POC or BIPOC) in a way that does not erase those precise ways that white supremacy has affected different groups of people. It’s crucial to this work to work toward understanding those intricacies of differing experiences alongside our work to understand how connected they all are.

If you are ever in doubt, speaking as precisely as possible is always best. We use the term people of the global majority when speaking only in the broadest strokes and try to be more specific when speaking about individual people or peoples. Ultimately, because of our broader goals here at Bookish Brews, using the term people of the global majority is beneficial to our mission, so you will see it scattered across our site.

Further Reading

I’m embracing the term people of the global majority

Who are the people of the global majority and why it matters