Ethnic minority

In sociology and in voting theory, aminority is a group that is outnumbered bypersons who do not belong to it. This can be used to refer to people of a different language , nationality , religion , culture , lifestyle or any characteristic.

In recent decades the term minority has taken on a new meaning among the politically correct , being used to refer to a group with which they perceive to be a lower socialstatus. For instance, while numerically women outnumber men in most societies, they can be said in politically correct terms tobe a minority, given their claim that they have inferior social rights compared to men. Some find this usage to be unhelpful orinaccurate.

A majority is a group that outnumbers its non-members, or, in the politically correct sense of the word, hasa higher social status.

In the politics of some nations , aminority is an ethnic group that is recognized as such byrespective laws of their country of habitation and therefore has some rights that ethnic groups not so recognized don't have (forexample, its members might have the right to education and/or communication with the government in their mother tongue).

Not every ethnic group that is a minority in number is a minority in political sense: some are too small or too indistinct tovalidate costs of providing these rights, and some are so large or historically or otherwise important that they are one of constitutivenations . As an example, see nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina .

There are controversial issues about both declaring minorities and of amount of their rights. Some claim minorities are notgiven enough rights while some claim minorities demand special rights amounting to discrimination , perhaps even on a path to separatism or supremacism .

One particularly controversial issue is positivediscrimination : the idea that (either social or legal) minorities should be given more privileges then the majority. There isalso the concept of reverse discrimination , where theminority gains a favorable status seen as superior to that of the majority, such as when their minority status is used to givethem preference for acceptance to a university , or to gain employment before anequally qualified non-minority. In the United States this is referred toas affirmative action .