Loaded terms:

...Yet the name "blacks" does not link them to a larger group or a larger history beyond the United States...

...White people do not constitute the majority of the world's population...

...People of these distinct national groups generally cherish their origins, are concerned about political events in these countries, tell stories about and travel to the "old country...

...Ordinarily, minority means that one group consists of fewer members than another group whose larger number constitutes it as the majority...

...He has traveled frequently to Africa and is the author of many articles on African-American Catholics.merican Catholics...

...The world is a multiracial, multi-ethnic, and multicultural habitat for humanity...

...You will always be poor and unemployed, because your identity is defined as and determined by your not being a part of the majority...

...There are very few circumstances, if any, in which they are treated simply as Americans...

...Thus, a story about minorities in America can easily evoke images of a group that is weak, passive, and inferior, lacking self-determination, possessing little that others desire, and having few resources for solving its own problems...

...Almost every ethnic group that has come to this country has suffered from prejudice, and residues of it exist to this day...

...Oddly, it is rarely used in reference to other groups such as Indian, Japanese, or Jewish people, though the size of each group is far smaller than the African-American population...

...That is, they are defined by their relationships to white people even when whites are the minority of the city in question...

...Even when Hispanic-Americans or African-Americans make up well over half of the population of a given city, they are still categorized as minorities...

...the term "minorities" is presumed to refer primarily to certain groups: people of African, Hispanic, or Asian origins...

...As a result, a somewhat homogenized population, made up of many different national backgrounds and simply called "white people" has become the so-called majority in relation to all others, who are forever minorities...

...But Americans of European origins are able to be simply Americans, when they want to be, only occasionally calling attention to their specific ethnic heritages...

...Because the word minority is a loaded term...

...There are Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Polish-Americans, Swedish-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and many others...

...One of the most significant consequences of the current discussion of the name African-American might be a greater awareness of the subtle racism that is often implicit, even if unintentional, in the way the words "minority" and "minority groups" are used...

...The majority group, on the other hand, is strong, active, self-determining, possessing what others need and want, and having the resources for solving its problems...

...In spite of the so-called melting pot of suburbia, most Caucasian people in this country are very much aware of and justly proud of their ethnic link with other lands...

...While much was made of Michael Dukakis, as the son of Greek immigrants during the last presidential campaign, he was never described as a member of a minority group...

...The eventual banishment of this problematic use of the word minority would challenge all people not to focus attention on who and what people are not, but on who and what they are...

...Edward K. Braxton, a priest of the archdiocese of Chicago, is the theological consultant for William H. Sadlier book publishers...

...If the name African-American helps black people in this country to become more conscious of their historical and racial links with over 600 million people all over the world who have Africa as their genesis, this might go a long way in combating the negative connotations that are almost immediately associated with the expression, minority group...

...That is, it is smaller than the whole...

...In the past and present these differences have led to fierce conflicts and even to open hostilities...

...More recently it has come to include Native Americans...

...It links them with the over 450 million people in Africa itself, as well as the tens of millions of people of African stock in the Caribbean, the West Indies, and South America...

...The annual graduating class from Harvard Business School is small, but are its members thought of as a minority in the business community...

...For example, "Only a minority of the world's nations have nuclear capability...

...edward k. braxton Rev...

...Used by blacks, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: Are you poor and unemployed...

...Because of the ravages of slavery most African-Americans have no way of tracing their origins to a specific country in Africa, such as Nigeria, Ghana, or the Ivory Coast, even though the parts of Africa that were most heavily involved in the slave trade are known...

...In the U.S...

...Nor can most black Americans sort through the complex tangle of African ethnic and tribal groups and identify their roots definitively as Ibu, Yourba, or Mandingo...

...Thus, the name African-American associates them with the whole continent of Africa and its ancient, rich, complex history and culture...

...This insistence on the use of the word minority to categorize and contain certain groups of people reaches laughable proportions when newspaper articles and television news reporters make statements such as: "Experts predict that by the year 2010 the majority of people living in the cities of Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Detroit, and Newark may be minorities...

...The frequent use of the term minority group in reference to black Americans can be a tragic reinforcement of the status quo...

...Why is it that these groups are not often referred to as minorities...

...Because of this pre-established understanding of the meaning of the word, it becomes impossible for white people ever to be a minority...

...However, because they are members of the same racial group, their different national backgrounds are not always immediately evident...

...When used in reference to race and ethnicity, however, the word can be subtly shaded...

...The differences among these groups are by no means slight...

...They celebrate the languages, music, art, and cuisine of their homelands...

...Of course you are, you are in a minority group...

...Why not...

...Further, this perception of the groups is applied to their individual members...

...It can be used in such a way that the larger group is perceived as normative...

...This peculiar use of the word minority becomes very obvious when we think of how it is not used...

...In newspaper editorials and television documentaries, the word minority is often associated with a host of problems: poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, drugs, violence, and unwed parents...

...How did the white population of the U.S., which is made up of people from so many different ethnic and national backgrounds, come to be one massive monolithic group, the majority...

...Few Americans earn over $5 million a year, but does anyone think of them as a minority...

...Each one of these groups, strictly speaking, is a minority...

...Black Americans do not have this freedom...