On May 2nd, 2023, Mashail Mallik of Harvard University presented her paper ‘Discrimination and Defiant Pride: How the Demand for Dignity Can Create Slack for Poor Governance. The paper asks why poorly governing ethnic parties persist and shows evidence that core supporters remain loyal in the face of poor governance because of dignity concerns: those who face more discrimination from state arms dominated by other ethnic groups are those who place a higher value on the provision of group status through descriptive representation. The arguments presented in the paper are supported by ethnographic, descriptive, and experimental evidence from the megacity of Karachi, Pakistan.