Junior Year English Journal #11

What does it mean to be a minority?

To me, a minority in this day and age usually involves race. I hear it all the time on the news or read it in the paper, "Blacks and other minorities, Hispanics and other minorities, Asians and other minorities..." And so on, but when I think about it, I realize that I do not have a problem with the word minority being used, simply because minorities are minorities. Whites, if I recall the 2000 Census figure correctly, make up about 70% to 80% of the people in the United States, this is clearly more than half, so whites are the majority and all other ethnic groups are minorities, but it seems to me that the minority with the highest percentage of people of the U.S. would become the majority of the minorities, but this is most likely irrelevant. I also have an impression, although I don't know for sure because I am white, that being a minority is unpleasant, most likely because of the fact that a minority is probably surrounded by those of the majority and feels, perhaps excluded, but hopefully, in the United States there will be a gradual equalization somehow so that there are no minorities, maybe the entire country could blend together.