What is a minority? (Mexicans, illegal, stats, racism)

[Miborn]

German, Irish, English, French, Asians, Swedish, Italian, Eskimos these would be considered Caucasian to me they are basically white.

And why are Hispanic, Indian, Black considered a minority over say a German or French or Irish person.

Women of all nationalities are considered a minority, but if you are a certain nationality you are considered more of a minority.

What about Arabic people are they considered a minority?

What should constitute a protected minority group and why?

[LancasterNative]

Originally Posted by Miborn

What should constitute a protected minority group and why?

Absolutely none! Because "we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [including women] are created equal..."

The whole idea that anyone deserves special recognition/treatment/protection because of who they are, how they were born, or who their ancestors were is repugnant to the very notion of being an American.

[tinasgt2005]

Originally Posted by LancasterNative

Absolutely none! Because "we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [including women] are created equal..."

The whole idea that anyone deserves special recognition/treatment/protection because of who they are, how they were born, or who their ancestors were is repugnant to the very notion of being an American.

I agree 100%.

[Seatown206]

My take is that minorities are anyone who's ethnicity makes up a smaller percentage of the general population. For instance in most major U.S. cities caucasians are more than 50% of the general population and the various minority races fill up the rest. That’s my basic take. As a result of unfortunate natural human nature to hold prejudices against those who look different than yourself minorities often deal with being treated differently based off appearance. So being that in many situations a person of an ethnic minority is going to be percieved somewhat differently and possibly treated differently than those in the majority, it makes sense to have programs, rules, whatever, set up to insure fair and proper treatment. I didn't say anything about free handouts or free rides, I simply said fair treatment.

[famenity]

Originally Posted by Miborn

German, Irish, English, French, Asians, Swedish, Italian, Eskimos these would be considered Caucasian to me they are basically white.

And why are Hispanic, Indian, Black considered a minority over say a German or French or Irish person.

Women of all nationalities are considered a minority, but if you are a certain nationality you are considered more of a minority.

What about Arabic people are they considered a minority?

What should constitute a protected minority group and why?

Surely as World citizens the White races are the minority and looking at the stats provided by the CIA there are more women in the world than men.

But if you go to a small island somewhere and take an evaluation of it's inhabitants things can change. Must be rotten to be on an island with hundreds of men and only a few women?

[macmeal]

Very good question, and one that's going to necessitate some re-adjusting in a very few years. It's comforting to think that a "minority" is anyone who isn't "white"-- and has thus been the victim of our brutal American culture. But that won't "cut it" much longer. California no longer has a numerical majority of ANY ethnic group...and in a few decades (or less) will have a Hispanic majority. Will whites then become a protected minority? Already Asians are the "inconvenient" minority--a non-white group that we WISH was needy-but which does so exceedingly well in so many ways that it makes it very hard to see them as anyone's "victim". Makes it very awkward to argue about prejudice and white racism. Those Asians certainly upset the "conventional wisdom" about the need for affirmative action, etc.

I once read that "the District of Columbia has a population that is 78% minority". How is 78% of ANYTHING a minority?
One thing is clear--the comfortable ideas we have about the place of the disadvantaged minority in our society are going to have to be re-examined--and soon...

[nancy thereader]

I read that in a hundred years, there will not be a single person with red hair left on the planet. I don't know if that's a SNOPES look-up, but the article said that red hair is an extremely recessive trait and that it is going to disappear shortly. For someone my age (which is sixty) ,
I remember when about a third of the kids in my class had red hair and freckles. You hardly ever see that anymore.

[ProLogic]

Eskimos and Asians do not look Caucasian..

To find a Minority, you take the majority. Of any region, or the United states as a whole. Example: In the U.S, Whites outnumber any other population. Therefore all races that ethnic groups that aren't American white are minorities.

[bryan61]

Asians=Model Minority

[Rita Mordio]

Well, there should not be anything called a "protected minority" IMO.

We're all minorities. All of us. Just because a whole bunch of people have white skin does not mean that they share a common bond. Some prefer to be called just an "American" while others have tight knit bonds to the country they come from.

You shouldn't lump all White people together. You shouldn't lump all black people together. None of us share a common bond except that at the present, we live in this country.

Just as not all whites owned slaves.. and not all blacks in this country were slaves. Not all "Hispanics" are illegal Mexicans.. in fact, they're not all Mexican.

Historically, most of us do not share a common bond. Except that we live in America currently. ((For those who don't but still chat here, sorry.))