If you look up minority in the dictionary, it states the word's meaning is a number or part representing less than half of the whole. If the population of the United States is the "whole" the dictionary was referring to, then the minority would make up less than half the population right? Not true. Women are considered minority yet they make up 51.3% of the population. Last time I checked 50% was half. So what places a group, not just women, in minority group status?.
First to be considered a minority you have to show a pattern of inequality. Classic case in the United States would be African Americans and slavery or women in the sense that they weren't even allowed to vote until 1920. A dominant group suppressed both these examples, the whites suppressed the blacks and the men suppressed the women. Inequality limits the amount of power you hold in society. By not being allowed to vote or be educated the dominant group limited the influence these two minority groups had on others. By limiting power this limited the minority group's ability to change the views and practices of society. Inequality limits prestige or the amount of respect given to a group. Without the respect of others in the dominant group how can a minority gain economically or politically? Inequality may limit jobs, the ability to gain the same education as a person in .
the dominant group, or even the area a person lives. .
A minority is set apart from the rest of society by a visible trait or characteristic. A person may speak with an accent, dress in a certain manner, or have a certain skin tone. An example would be an Asian's eyes or the African Americans skin color. Without these characteristics the rest of society could not differentiate between themselves and the minority. Having these "markers" to look for helps the dominant group to carry out the unequal treatment given to the minority. For example, we can usually tell a person from African American decent from a person of Caucasian decent.
