E-Saan People's Stereotypes: Minority or Discrimination?

If someone says the word, "Minority," many people only think about a small group of people who live within a larger group or a majority and usually be abused. However, in my opinion, a minority can also refer to a group of people that are not being treated equally in the society although they have the same or even larger number than the others. This kind of situation has happended in Thailand. Even though the northeastern part of Thailand has the biggest population, people from this region always be looked down. There are some stereotypes of people from the northeast which most of them are not in good ways.

We call people from the northeastern part, "E-Saan people," which means people from the northeast. But some people use the word,"E-Saan," to insult others in the way that they are too stupid or rustic. Many people think that E-Saan people are all illiterate. Another stereotype of E-Saan people is working class. It is common in music videos or dramas to see E-Saan people as a servant, factory worker, or even laborer. Moreover, it is sad that some E-Saan young generations do not even want to let other people know that they are from the northeastern. They also do not want to speak E-Saan dialect, a dialect which is used only in the northeastern, because they think that people will look them down and think they are unmodern. These two examples are enough to show that E-Saan people are not treated equally.

It does not matter how big of the group they are, the more important thing to concern is how they are treated. Even though they are the biggest group in terms of quantity, they are just like the minority in terms of feeling.