ABSTRACT
The USA Today on September 30, 2004, reported that minorities are becoming a majority in more and more parts of the United States.1 In 280 counties out of 3,141 in the country, whites who are not Hispanic are no longer in the majority. As a state, California has not had an ethnic majority for several years, and Texas is rapidly approaching or may already have joined California in that designation. Major cities such as Denver and Detroit do not have a specific racial or ethnic majority either. Furthermore, the so-called demographic upheaval means that the majority-minority divide is no longer a simple black-and-white affair, giving the growing populations of Asian and Hispanic background. As part of this trend, we may soon find that the word “minority,” used as a demographic category, will no longer be used or even considered acceptable. Concerning the ethics of labels for people, many people now object to the term “minority” anyway as implying diminished importance or status.
