ABSTRACT
Previous chapters focused on the nature of racial and ethnic relations in Americaand on the strategies and tactics adopted by various minority groups to cope with the effects of their status. Certain public policy areas move to the forefront of relations between the two cultures. A minority group is categorized as such precisely because it lacks sufficient political power to influence certain policy areas to its benefit or because it is unable to restrain the majority culture from using public policy to its detriment. Majority society employs public policy to treat members of the minority in a negatively differential manner. The majority develops a degree of structural or institutionalized discrimination against the minority. Certain public policy areas become arenas of the struggle over power relations between the majority and minority groups.
