Session 4 | Assignment 1 |  Centering human dignity in the face of criminalization and exclusion.

To degrade and denounce someone is to strip from them their social standing, their identity, and their dignity. The sociologist Harold Garfinkel termed this process a "degradation ceremony", and spent a good deal of his professional life revealing the many ways these "ceremonies" are effectively used to strip people of their identity and lower their social status: "A degradation ceremony is a public, ritualized process that destroys a person's social identity, often re-labeling them as deviant, inferior, or an outsider. This process reinforces group norms through humiliation, character assassination, and, at times, forced removal from the group.

Key components and examples of degradation ceremonies include:

• The Denouncer: A person with high social standing who publicly accuses the victim, framing them as a "total" deviant rather than simply someone who made a mistake.
• The Victim: The target whose identity is stripped away, often chosen for challenging group norms, such as whistleblowers or innovators.
• The Audience/Witnesses: The community must accept the denouncer's claim and agree to view the victim as a lower-status "outsider".

We see the effectiveness of these public rituals, and we also see that when the "audience" no longer remains quit when the "denouncer" humiliates and degrades, the ritual is weakened. Once someone breaks the silence, then others may see through the effort to turn a neighbor into an outcast. We are seeing it happen more and more in the United States, as Minnesota has become a wonderful example of breaking the silence and building solidarity with all their neighbors.