Quantum Victimhood: How Grievance Culture Transcends Time and Space
Quantum victimhood refers to people who profit off of the pain of those who phenotypically resembled the past, embody similar characteristics or beliefs in the present, and, based on their narratives, will be perpetual victims ad infinitum.
I coined this phrase two years ago and then sat on it. Why? At the time, it occurred to me that people might think that I am disparaging victims. (I am not, by the way.) I also questioned what would happen if the phrase hit a nerve. Would those perpetuating quantum victimhood deepen their grievant-informed trajectory? And rather than enter into a conversation about what's needed to transcend this woeful, anti-agentic, and unhelpful state, would they double down?
I thought way too much about it. Now that I've concluded most of the audience that would find value in pondering the notion of quantum victimhood would never read the article anyway, I'll start digging into it more, hoping a few people will be willing to open up a conversation about what needs to change.
The Problem with Modern "Allyship"
Incessant rhetoric about the plight of a group one strongly identifies with or considers oneself a seeming ally of is the beginning of quantum victimhood. I say "seeming ally" because allyship in the form of villainizing someone who makes a perceived slight or holds a contrary view is not, for me, someone in support of my growth.
This is particularly problematic in how many DEI practitioners consider an ally. Julie Kratz, a well-known consultant on allyship, says: "Allyship is about partnering and supporting marginalized individuals and communities that are different from your own identity group."
While Julie's framing is well-meaning, it presents a conundrum. It places someone in a position of power as an "ally" while the "allied" are subordinated. One might say, "Yes, Amri, superior and subordinated dyads and dynamics exist in society and inside every organization." And we would agree.
However, this framing as it relates to diversity and inclusion leaves those in so-called marginalized groups perpetually subordinated because of their group identity. This can create a sort of asymmetrical coddling that doesn't support one's expanding agency. Therefore, I'd rather engage my enemies if this is the behavior of my ally.
Microaggressions vs. Micro-inequities
The evolution of microaggressions, as we know them today, has supported and deepened our grievance orientation. Before delving further, let me distinguish between micro-inequities and microaggressions.
Mary Rowe, a professor Emeritus at MIT and head of the Ombudsman office there for many years, deepened our understanding of "microinequities" back in 1973. She defined micro-inequities as "apparently small events which are often ephemeral and hard-to-prove, events which are covert, often unintentional, frequently unrecognized by the perpetrator, which occur wherever people are perceived to be 'different.'"
The term "microaggressions" was first coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester Pierce in the 1970s to describe the subtle, everyday ways that people racialized as black experienced discrimination from their white counterparts. Pierce identified what he called "subtle racial putdowns that degrade physical health over a lifetime."
Some people who follow Ibram X. Kendi's school of thought have stopped believing in the word "microaggressions." Yet, they still perpetuate quantum victimhood because their intention wasn't to create conditions where behaviors equated with microaggressions could be mitigated.
Instead, their turn away from using the word further reinforces power asymmetries that occur in much of the allyship discourse. This shift hasn't created a greater understanding of the workplace impact of these behaviors in a way that they can be changed, but instead amplified calls for policing language and behavior and "making wrong" people (usually white men) based on their group identities.
A deeper look on perpetuating victimhood
A Better Path Forward
Rowe's work was informed by Pierce's. And I think Rowe's framing lends to the notion that people, beyond their racialization, can say and do things that create a sense that others are not being given the dignity all of us deserve. Rowe also offers a helpful antidote: micro-affirmations.
Rowe defines micro-affirmations as: "tiny acts of opening doors to opportunity, gestures of inclusion and caring, and graceful acts of listening. Micro-affirmations lie in the practice of generosity, in consistently giving credit to others—in providing comfort and support when others are in distress."
I have experienced far more micro-affirmations in my life than micro-inequities or microaggressions. In fact, I imagine that if my mindset was fixated more on the racialization ascribed to me, I would have seen many statements as racist acts or behaviors. They, in fact, could have been.
Fortunately, I've had people pour many a micro dosage of praise, adoration, and affirmation on me, creating a protective ring that mitigates potential damage and makes me feel that I matter and belong wherever I am in the world. I find this to be a much better pathway to people thriving in organizations than anchoring on victimization that usually erodes one's sense of belonging or leads them to seek retribution against those they feel have left them feeling less dignified.
One more point before diving deeper into quantum victimhood via grievance: this phenomenon isn't just perpetuated by those who are adherents or practitioners in the so-called DEI field. I would argue that even the most famous anti-DEI voices push quantum victimhood narratives, too.
The Culture of Victimhood
Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning in their 2014 article "Microaggression and Moral Cultures" describe a "culture of victimhood" in contrast to honor and dignity cultures.
They state that honor cultures function as Alexander Hamilton did in accepting a duel with Aaron Burr (which eventually led to his death). Hamilton was highly concerned with his reputation, and in a culture of honor, one must respond aggressively to insults or challenges to protect said reputation. Honor cultures often exist where legal authority, such as law enforcement, is weak.
Dignity cultures are what the authors might call "thick-skinned" cultures where minor slights and, at times, serious insults are shrugged off. "In a dignity-based society parents might teach children some version of 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me'."
Campbell and Manning define a culture of victimhood as "one characterized by concern with status and sensitivity to slight combined with a heavy reliance on third parties. People are intolerant of insults, even if unintentional, and react by bringing them to the attention of authorities or to the public at large. Domination is the main form of deviance, and victimization is a way of attracting sympathy. So, rather than emphasize either their strength or inner worth, the aggrieved emphasize their oppression and social marginalization."
The authors discuss the rise of microaggression complaints on college campuses and how this phenomenal rise in public grievance exists among both the labeled oppressed and oppressors. "Naturally, wherever victimhood confers status, all sorts of people will want to claim it."
Quantum Victimhood Defined
This brings me back to "quantum victimhood." In a victimhood culture, people use the present, past, and a contrived potential future to assert narrative-based dominance. That is, they remain vigilant for opportunities to garner sympathy for injustices that happened to people who possessed an identity one most heavily associates with historically, contemporarily, and futuristically.
I would never deny the realities of oppression and dominance that have happened and, in too many cases, continue to happen at the hands of some very bad actors upon innocents. These things are real, and victims should be cared for according to their needs. They require appropriate attention and intervention toward their healing.
I make a clear distinction between victims and victimhood. I don't claim that there are quantum victims because, in many cases, I don't see those who practice quantum victimhood as victims due to material suffering.
Sure, there are cases where the purveyors of quantum victimhood have experienced discomfort, even in the extreme. Yet, while I am cautious about diminishing anyone's current experience, comparatively to the past that many marginalized people have experienced, the world is more equal than it has ever been. This is a worldwide phenomenon.
Does inequality remain (usually in wealth and income distribution)? Most certainly. Does it warrant perpetuating a narrative of gloom and doom? Most certainly not.
A Contemporary Example
On April 16th, 2025, after over a decade of wrangling that I only came to partially understand in 2020, the U.K. Supreme Court confirmed what I believe most people already knew or felt: that the common and legal understanding of the words "man" and "woman" refer to biological sex.
Many trans folks and trans activists are outraged by the decision. Reasonably so. I don't purport to know the plight of trans people. I am familiar with violence experienced by trans youth from my time working as an external consultant with GLSEN many years ago.
During that time (early 2000s), unlike today's contentious conversation about trans people, the approach was compassionate. It focused on ensuring LGBT youth weren't being assaulted, homeless, or separated from families due to teenage hormonal normalcy and lack of communication with their parents. It was about their care and safety.
So why is it different today? Likely because a few people gained celebrity by co-opting trans identity for personal gain. People like Dylan Mulvaney of the Bud Light debacle.
Steve QJ said in his article about the UK parliament decision:
"Is Dylan Mulvaney a trans woman? Well, he also uses women's bathrooms. And despite being a twenty-eight-year-old man, he also enjoys referring to himself as a "girl." But the only evidence of Dylan's girlhood is things like eating girl-scout cookies on a pink bed, prancing through the forest in high heels and…well, I'll let him put it in his own words:
'Day one of being a girl, and I have already cried three times, I wrote a scathing email that I did not send, I ordered dresses online that I couldn't afford. And then when someone asked me how I was, I said, "I'm fine," when I wasn't fine. So, how'd I do ladies?'"
Elite Capture and True Victims
Are there people from so-called marginalized identities who are doing quite well relative to even those who may not qualify as possessing such peripheral social status? Absolutely—especially among the elite in Western society, meaning the most educated, relatively highest-earning, upwardly mobile folks.
The thing about quantum victimhood is that real victims don't engage in it; they don't constantly talk about their victimhood. Real victims seek to overcome and transcend—they hold a culture more akin to a culture of dignity. Skin-in-the-game creates dignity and, in some cases, honor. Quantum victimhood is unconcerned with dignity or confuses it with status.
Philosopher Olúfémi O. Táíwò, in his book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), says about elites, "Sometimes you're an elite because of how people have decided (or been forced) to relate to some aspect of your social identity. Sometimes you're an elite because of some more contingent advantage: your level of education, wealth, or social prestige. Sometimes you're an elite just because you happen to be the only one of your group who's in a particular room."
He cites political scientist Jo Freeman who states: "An elite refers to a small group of people who have power over a larger group of which they are part, usually without direct responsibility to that larger group, and often without their knowledge or consent."
Then, in describing elite capture, Táíwò says that the phenomenon happens when "the advantaged few steer resources and institutions that could serve the many toward their own narrower interests and aims. The term is used in economics, political science, and related disciplines to describe the way socially advantaged people tend to gain control over benefits meant for everyone."
The Multiversal Nature of Quantum Victimhood
Someone practicing quantum victimhood is, in its most wretched form, usurping the role of the victim. Even if not necessarily the receiver of aggression or anything that makes one a victim, they falsely cloak themselves in victimhood for personal gain.
They use the historical and contemporary suffering of others to move into a power position in contention with those who disagree with them. Their victimhood manifests in a quantum way across time and space, going backward, in the now, and in many dimensions and parallel universes into the future.
It's like a Doctor Strange of victimhood. It's multiversal.
Ready to transform inclusion from concept to action to being a cultural superpower?
When inclusion becomes "the way we do things around here," it transforms from initiative to being a key part of organizational identity.
Want to be part of this transformation? Join our free Emergent Inclusion Framework virtual event. Whether you're a skeptic or champion, your voice matters in this conversation.
I hope to see you there! Tell a friend 😊
I hope this was helpful. . . Make it a great day! ✌🏿
