The pool of contenders for Most Meaningless Phrase is large, but in it must be the phrase "historically marginalized". Can history (times past) have a margin? Being about time, not space, can it have a centre? The logical mind struggles, even though realizing that metaphorically the "centre" means centre stage, where the rich and famous in every age get attention because others give it to them.
Ideologues and social-redesigners mean something else though, using the phrase historically-marginalized to set up the future-privileged. They are not talking about historic groups that no longer exist (the Lagashians, say, or the Galatian Druids), they are talking about ethnic groups of the present who present themselves as marginalized retroactively, with the aim of harvesting future reparation.
They need not be personally marginalized (this all being safely historic), but they can personally benefit from the reparations, such as land-gifts and exemption from sentencing in criminal courts.
It's a universal aspect of human psychology to feel yourself at the centre of your own life, in fact to be the centre of the world. To feel safe, people want their whole tribe to be there with them. Since everyone's at the centre of their own world, history is but the long shared tale of everyone behaving accordingly.
In today's socio-political environment, you can even take a Grievance Studies course on the topic. That way you learn how to standpoint-by-your-mandate in the culture wars -- and it's the disinterested study of History that's pushed off the edge of the table.
We can see this happening in the current re-shaping of the museum industry: SatiricalScene: What Is a Museum's Job?
(Hear a podcast on marginalization at: Historically Marginalized Is Forever | New Discourses Bullets, Ep.8 - New Discourses)
