marginalized

North American society is closed to the outside world, and at the same time it is inwardly petrified. Life cannot penetrate it, and being rejected, squanders itself aimlessly on the outside. It is a marginal life, formless but hoping to discover its proper form.

- Octavio Paz in The Labyrinth of Solitude

Paz is talking about the pachuco or the marginalized Mexican youths in America who form gangs out of an identity that rejects both traditional Mexican culture and the predominant white American culture. The marginalization by American culture, however, has resulted in similar types among oter immigrant and minority groups. Indeed, global marginalization of such individuals by hegemonic American culture and economic interests (and by elites in their own countries) has resulted in such types across the globe.