ABSTRACT
Minority status is sometimes “given;” often it is inherited. It may stem simply from the ascription of a differentiating label to a category of individuals who share certain social and physical traits deemed inferior to those of the dominant group—for example, persons with dark skin, atheists, women, and homosexuals. Minority status repeatedly has been found to intensify already existing group identity or to create it where it has not existed prior to discrimination. Many members of minority groups make their living and spend much of their money within the ethnic community itself. Many members of minority groups fall somewhere between the “corner boys” and the “college boys.” Group identification is revealed in intragroup attitudes and actions; it is reflected in expressions of intergroup behavior and minority reaction to treatment by others. The reaction patterns of both submission and withdrawal used by certain minority group members presume acceptance of the inferior image held of them by the majority.
