Strength-Based Solidarity: Shared Strengths as a Novel Pathway Toward Holistic and Sustained Intraminority Solidarity

Research on intraminority solidarity has primarily relied on the stigma-based solidarity framework, which uses commonalities based on discrimination to foster systemically marginalized people's activism for one another. Shifting from a deficit-based to a critical strength-based approach, we propose strength-based solidarity, where marginalized people recognize their shared, identity-conscious (i.e., conscious of sociohistorical, cultural, and political contexts) strengths and thus work to optimize each other's lived experiences. We argue that strength-based solidarity can cultivate holistic and sustained intraminority solidarity. Integrating the literature on intraminority relations with collective action and strength-based research, we present holistic perception, efficacy, positive emotions, reduced competitive victimhood and less burnout, as mechanisms by which strength-based solidarity can facilitate intraminority solidarity. We discuss the proposed framework's intersections with stigma-based solidarity and intersectionality. Research on strength-based solidarity can provide education, political organizing, and clinical applications to cultivate positive intraminority relations.Public AbstractWhat makes people from different marginalized communities show up and advocate for each other? Psychologists and lay audiences alike often focus on experiencing similar discrimination as a reason marginalized groups may come together, but are marginalized people solely bonded through discrimination? We introduce a new way to look at solidarity between different marginalized groups: strength-based solidarity. We suggest that people from different marginalized groups share similar strengths in their day-to-day lives, such as resilience, cultural diversity, and community strength. Recognizing such common strengths has the potential to increase intraminority solidarity that can nurture marginalized people's strengths (such as celebrating talents and cultivating joys) and can last longer. Given the increasingly repressive U.S. climate, relying on shared strengths is especially instrumental to bring people together in all realms of society.