Somebodies and Nobodies: Rankism and What It Means
Robert W. Fuller
Introduction
Fuller believes that the social movements of the late 1960's and early 1970's,which sought to reduce racism and sexism, were manifestations of a more fundamental cause of discrimination: rank-based abuse (i.e., "ranksim"). Rankism underlies discrimination based upon skin color, sex, and religion. It erodes students' will to learn in favor of the perceived need to gain rank. Once you have a name for it, you see it everywhere. The outrage over self-serving corrupt politicians and business executives is indignation over rankism. Sexual abuse by the clergy is rankism. Elder abuse in care facilities is rankism. The casualties of globalization are attributable to rankism.
It is crucial to get one thing straight from the start: power differences, in themselves, are not the culprit. Therefore rank differences are not the problem either. Difficulties arise only when these differences are used as an excuse to abuse, humiliate, exploit, and subjugate.
Rankism--Mother if "Isms"
What makes it possible for one group to discriminate against another? Power matters. Although rank-based discrimination feels the same to its targets as the more familiar kinds, there are some important differences in the way it works. Unlike skin color or sex, rank is mutable. You can be taken for a nobody one day and for a somebody the next. You can be a nobody at work and a somebody at home.
The indignity faced by victims of rankism festers; it builds to indignation and sometimes erupts in violence. Attacking the familiar isms, one at a time, is like lopping heads off the Hydra of discrimination and oppression; going after rankism aims to drive a stake through the Hydra's heart.
Equal in Dignity
Though most of us have experienced rankism, we do not routinely protest it, at least to the perpetrators. Despite the fact that we may acquiesce to unequal treatment or even collude in self-abnegation, most of us sense that there is something about human beings that is universal, absolute, and yes, equal. We are equal in dignity. Rankism invariably is an assault on dignity.
The Myth of Meritocracy
While opportunity in America is more equal than in many other countries, it is a mistake to think that we enjoy a true meritocracy. Achievers of higher rank often use their position to disadvantage those of lower rank. They discriminate against those who would challenge their position. Meritocracy is a myth in the presence of rankism.
Democracy's Next Step
Although Americans have made significant inroads against racism and sexism, diminishing returns seem to be setting in. At this stage, an all-inclusive approach might do more to advance the causes of minorities, women, and other identity groups than the splintering, sometimes divisive, group-based politics of recent years. A practical approach at that point is to attack the universal underlying cause of indignity, regardless of who is targeted. That cause is rankism. Like racism and sexism, rankism cannot be eradicated overnight, but its perpetrators can be put on notice.
Why Rank Matters
Rank generally is less conspicuous than race or gender, but every bit as consequential. No sooner do people meet than they begin probing to determine each other's rank. The problem, however, is not that rank counts. When it signifies excellence, rank should count and it does. The trouble is that rank counts twice. No sooner is rank assigned than holders of higher rank can use their power to aggrandize themselves at the expense of those of lower ranks.
Legitimate Uses of Rank
Rank is an essential tool in the management of our lives and our institutions. Greater efficiency and productivity follow when we get the right person into the right job.
People who hold rank, however, find themselves in the role of gatekeeper to those seeking it. The awkward balancing act of the gatekeeper's job is implicit in the two opposed meanings of the word "discriminate." One the one hand, "discriminate" means to perceive the distinguishing features of, to discern, to select with intent. Persons with higher rank often find themselves having to discern between legitimate contenders for rank and those who merely think they have the ability to hold a higher rank. Not a few well-meaning utopians have sought to reduce the suffering of those who lose out in contests for rank by proposing rules that blur distinctions and promote more equal outcomes. Equalized outcomes are not desirable as goals and impossible to achieve in practice.
A second meaning of discriminate is to categorize others on the basis of group membership rather than upon merit. This second meaning lies at the heart of rankism.
Pulling Rank
Most of us have suffered in one way or another at the hands of people who outrank us. In fact, the high-ranking have such a consistent history of abusing the power of their position that today anyone who assumes a position of authority comes immediately under suspicion, especially from the young. Again, the problem is not hierarchy, but the abuse of it.
Kicking the Dog
Objects of bullying seldom just absorb insult and transmute it into beneficence. "Turning the other cheek" is high-minded, risky, and rare. Although power difference deters targets from retaliating directly against an opponent, they can take their rage out on someone they perceive as weaker than themselves. The relativity of rank means that although everybody is a nobody to someone, everybody is also a somebody to someone else.
Until we can see how to organize against an abuse of power, we acquiesce, sometimes letting off steam by attacking those whom we outrank. Very few persons are impervious to having rank pulled on them, and fewer still are entirely innocent of doing it themselves. Domestic abuse, bigotry, and "hate crimes" are all fueled by the rankest impulse to kick the dog. Wife-beaters, gay-bashers, and lynch mobs can all be seen as displacing disdain they have themselves experienced on to the undefended.
