When Ć Becomes Č: Discrimination of Unrecognized National Minorities in Slovenia
When Ć Becomes Č: Discrimination of Unrecognized National Minorities in Slovenia

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the situation of members of “new” national communities in Slovenia, focusing particularly on their experience regarding discrimination in the spheres of education, work, social and political participation, access to the media and everyday life. The discrimination they face in everyday life is often rooted deep within the institutional structure as the constitution of Slovenia has no particular provisions protecting the (collective) rights of these communities. The analyses of various research reports and databases, substantiated with transcripts from selected interviews with members of different minority (cultural) associations, provide an insight into the sorts, the extent, the circumstances and the consequences of the social, civil and political discrimination based on national or ethnic appurtenance. In the concluding part, the author argues that prejudices and stereotypes, which support the discriminative attitude towards the minority communities, are more than merely oversimplified judgements arising from narrowsightedness or limited knowledge – above all, they are political measures, ideological tales, which are the crucial driving force of existing societies. The ethnic discrimination – whether insulting remarks or the perfidious violence of ignorance – which is based on the alibi of prejudices is therefore never “an event”, but rather a process nested within the relations of power.

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