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The
majority of residents in Texas, California, New Mexico,
Hawaii and Washington, D.C., are some ethnicity other
than non-Hispanic whites, according to Census Bureau
population estimates released last week. Five other
states, including New York and Georgia, could make that
shift by 2010.
Soon,
more than one-third of Americans will live in states
where Latinos, blacks, Asians, American Indians and
other ethnic groups outnumber whites. Such demographic
shifts have given rise to the term ``majority-minority.''
Harrison
noted that ``minority'' refers to more than just numbers.
``The
word's origins are that these are populations that once
had the status of minors before the law,'' Harrison
said. ``These are populations that, in one way or another,
did not have full legal status or full civil rights.''
When
considering doing away with the term, ``the question
is, how far along the road to full equality have they
come?''
Haig
Bosmajian, a University of Washington professor emeritus
of communications, said that when he researched his
book ``The Language of Oppression'' in the 1960s, ``minority''
accurately described blacks and other relatively small
ethnic groups.
``But
by 'minority' today we mean a disadvantaged group of
citizens. We mean not the privileged at the top, but
the underprivileged at the bottom: People who make $10
million a year, we don't call them a 'minority,''' he
said. ``There's power behind these terms.''
Star
Parker, who heads the Coalition on Urban Renewal and
Education, a conservative black think tank, said the
word is ``absolutely misused. It's become an entitlement
word, a word for victimization.''
In
some cases, particularly regarding affirmative action
programs, ``minority'' often includes women, disabled
people and religious groups, said Robin Lakoff, a socio-linguist
at the University of California, Berkeley. That's made
the definition murky, in her view.
``It's
now almost too inclusive and not clear enough,'' she
said.
Still,
she added, ``sometimes I think we worry too much about
semantic hairsplitting. If I had to fight about something,
I might not fight about the term 'minority.'''
Luke
Visconti of DiversityInc, which advises businesses on
racial issues, disagreed. He believes that shelving
``minority'' is important because the word implies second-class
status. Modern-day discrimination is more subtle than
in years past, he said, and ``language is the dominant
way today of expressing oppression.''
Whatever
the reason, ``minority'' is already falling from favor
in some circles.
``People
of color'' is often used, particularly in academia.
``Multicultural,'' ``diverse'' and ``urban'' also are
common. The University of Michigan has what it calls
``minority-cultural lounges'' with black, Latino, Asian
and Native American themes.
In
2001, San Diego's city council approved striking ``minority''
from official usage _ and to stop using the term ``Southeast
San Diego'' to refer to neighborhoods that are largely
black and Hispanic _ to ``move away from the pejorative
connotations ... and move to something that was respectful,''
said Danell Scarborough, a human resources manager with
the city.
``When
I asked people around here about 'minority,' they said,
'Huh? I haven't heard that in ages,''' she said. ``There
was not a resistance.''
Even
the Census Bureau itself is moving in that direction.
Though
the bureau has not officially barred its use _ last
week's news release on Texas was titled, ``Texas Becomes
Nation's Newest 'Majority-Minority' State'' _ many officials
avoid ``minority'' in favor of more specific racial
and ethnic labels, said Claudette E. Bennett, chief
of the Census racial statistics branch.
The
bureau increasingly tries to use specific terms such
as ``Pacific Islander'' and ``Mexican-American,'' she
said.
``If
you see the term 'minority' in one of our reports,''
Bennett said, ``there's going to be a footnote ... detailing
what exactly it means.''
___
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