Symbolic or "gentle" violence[edit]

Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu described symbolic annihilation as a form of subtle violence which disregards the legitimacy of an identity. A society is susceptible to the media it consumes and the social norms as depicted by the media can be instructive to consumers as a model of behavior toward the minority group. Invisibility or negative portrayal of minorities in media denies their existence in society. The result is that familiarity and behavioral codes are not well established and interaction is characterized by differences between groups.^[1]