why do people say minorities?

Question

i dislike the word minority because there are people of color than there are caucasion people. it seems like everyone is called a minoriy except for white people. i think we have been brainwashed. but that is just my opinion

Answer 1

The problem is even more complex than this. Anyone who has an ancestor who was black is generally referred to as black (at least in the U.S.), even though they might have as many -- or more -- genes from white ancestors as black ones. This comes from the old "one drop of blood" standard and is, in my opinion, racist in and of itself.

In the United States, I believe it is true that there are more white people than there are people classified in any other ethnicity. So even if people of color outnumber white people, any given non-white ethnic group would be a minority compared to white people.

Just to show how crazy using this term can get, I have seen many occurrances of women being classified as a minority. Go figure.

Answer 2

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion; they are like belly-buttons, everyone has one. The Caucasian population has been steadily decreasing, where so-called minorities are on the rise-especially among Latinos. I have said it before, and I will say again: The ONLY true minority left in the United States of America are the original inhabitants of this land, the Native or American Indians.

Answer 3

HMM, have you looked out your window recently!!!! WHITES ARE A MAJORITY!!!!!! so we call everyone else minorities because that is what they are, just like in congress, with the majority party leader and the minority one, minority means there's less of them than there is of other people, it's an apropriate term, I think you're just a paranoyed racist that wants to pick on MINORITIES!

Answer 4

Minority is word describing population in terms of %.
We breathe the same AIR and we are children of Adam. I don't smell racism at all.

Anyways I have noticed minorities are privileged class the top most of the universities.

Answer 5

Because there are more white people than any other type... and it at least used to be that white people were a majority of the American population.

Answer 6

It is not really about numbers......it is about "access" to "the goods" such as higher education and better jobs and what not. Oftentimes, it is the groups considered "minorities" who are barred from getting better jobs or better educations. That is changing, but for many years, that's the way it was.

Answer 7

isnt like 50 or 75% of da US population white? either way, there's more of em than any other ethnicity... yea but itz stupid either way to call everyone else a minority

Answer 8

The definition of minority is:

State of being less or small.

Answer 9

Depends on what continent, country etc. In the USA, there are more caucasians, so people who are not caucasian are in the minority.

Answer 10

"Minority" does not equal "people of color" automatically. "Minority" is simply a term used to refer to the people who are less populous in a given area. For example, in South Africa, white people are the "minority."

You're also incorrect in saying that there are more people of color than there are caucasian people, if you're talking about the population of the U.S.

"According to the Census Bureau, as of 2004, America's racial composition is:

* White American - definition includes people of European as well as those of Middle Eastern or North African descent
o 80.4%, or about 238 million (includes those who selected white in addition to another race, and those who declared themselves as white-Hispanics)
o 67.4%, or about 199.5 million (excludes white Hispanics and people who selected another race in addition to white)
* Black or African American 12.8% or 37.8 million,
* Asian American 4.2% or 12.4 million,
* American Indian 1.4% or 4.1 million,which includes those of mixed race or more than one race in addition to Native Americans
* Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 0.2%
* Two or more races 2.4%

The Census Bureau considers Hispanic to be any person with national origins in Latin America or Spain (for example, Spaniards, Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans), and thus may be of any race.

* Hispanics of any race 14.1% or about 41.7 million

The Census Bureau's definition of "white" is not necessarily the definition most widely held by Americans. The proportion of the U.S. population that is "white alone" - excluding people of Hispanic or racially mixed ancestry - is currently at 67.4%."

So, yes, in the U.S. as a whole, people of color are still in the minority (even if that's not the case in some local areas, like parts of California).