MINORITIES: WHAT’S A MINORITY?

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] minority minority group statistically it refers to any group that forms a small part of a population people who are taller than average for instance but do we think of tall people as a minority airline stewardesses are a small part of the working population but are they a minority what about high-rise dwellers fewer people live in high-rises than in other homes does this make them a minority such groups could be thought of as minorities if percentage of population were the only criterion but is it what does make a particular group a minority i don't know if i understand exactly the question like you say but i think a minority group or what people that consider themselves like minority group are people who do not have um i don't like to say the power but the social position you know look i know what you're after man and so do you look i mean if you really want me to say it i will it's prejudice that's what it is well i would describe it not just in terms of status but rather in terms of how it feels it's not a very good feeling it's a feeling of being deprived of things of things that other people take for granted racism race prejudice whatever you want to call it they are the same thing well i believe a minority group has been used many times by many people and a lot of businessmen use the minority group to be exploited in many instances what it comes down to is is discrimination minority groups are discriminated against that's what it's all about criteria for defining minorities extend beyond percentage of population two criteria such as prejudice and discrimination who do these terms apply to but you got to be kidding yeah okay it's mostly blacks but it's other groups too uh it applies to black puerto rican chinese you mean so-called racial minorities right oh sure the jew is a minority yes catholics too religious minorities yes well i think italians think of themselves as a minority poles other eastern europeans ethnic minorities ethnic groups religious groups racial groups these are what we refer to when we use the term minority what makes these groups any different from others in our society what makes them special racial groups can usually be distinguished by physical characteristics it's possible to determine a person's race on the basis of physical characteristics but not always finding physical characteristics to distinguish other groups is even more difficult some ethnic groups for instance have been classified according to the shape of their heads east europeans often have wide broad heads but there are exceptions are there any physical characteristics that are dependable as a basis for identifying minority groups you may wish to test yourself on religious minorities is this man jewish protestant catholic or mighty be of some other religious faith what about this man can you tell his religion by looking at it what about these men how about ethnic minorities is this woman german english greek or some other nationality what ethnic group does this woman belong to or this one differences in physical characteristics are sometimes rooted in ethnic origins but not always perhaps it's not physical characteristics that make minority groups special maybe it's characteristics of thought can minority groups be characterized according to what they think religious minorities can be of course catholic thoughts about religion differ from the thoughts of jews buddhists and followers of other religious beliefs but aside from particular religious beliefs thought characteristics of minority groups are difficult to define political preferences of minorities are as hard to predict as for any other group similar variations can be found in beliefs of a cultural social or scientific nature characterizing the thoughts of minority groups is hazardous although people have attempted to do so attempts have also been made to generalize about actions of minority groups sometimes in derogatory terms minority groups have been described as shiftless irresponsible dirty pleasure loving violent incapable of learning american ways culturally inferior and immoral such things have been said about every minority group in our society often the people making such statements were once minorities themselves but why are such statements made what are the reasons for minorities being treated as they are well i suppose you have to say competition yeah competition is what comes down to many people got good jobs good homes good schools and they don't want to give them up to us on the other hand they are bad jobs low paying jobs dirty and dangerous jobs someone have to do them and most of this job has been given to the minorities i don't think they know what they're doing most people just don't set out to hurt other people when they do think about it they're thinking about other people who are doing it well they know what they're doing but they don't want to admit it you know what i mean they don't want to feel guilty people know what's right what's wrong what's bad but they just make excuses [Applause] but look the way i see it i mean the economic part you might be able to justify or at least understand it but some of it it hasn't anything to do with need i mean look let's face it wealthy people have prejudices as well as poor people i mean you know but what i'm saying is most of them have a it's an ego kind of a thing the egos are impoverished i mean they gotta knock somebody else to feel like they are marching anything themselves i think people need a scapegoat somebody to put the blame because when something goes wrong you don't want people to think it is your fault well it's an excuse the excuse is to pretend that some people are not as good as others to pretend that some people are less than human you get enough people believing it and you end up believing it yourself a total impression based on many factors economic social emotional but is that the whole picture how do members of the so-called majority feel well i'm glad you said so-called majority because there is no majority not in the united states that's fiction i think you're probably referring to what we call a wasp a white anglo-saxon protestant a group that is supposedly exploiting minority groups but that's not true minority members are in positions of power in all phases of our society they're in politics in power positions they're in the arts in influential positions they're in powerful legal positions there is no exploitation there's a lot of discrimination there's there's a lot that's unfair and really ought to be changed but there's there's still a lot that the minorities bring on themselves i mean things go on and problems get worse that could be taken care of if if they didn't take advantage of the situation when things happen to well not even to themselves but to other people they they take that and then they use it as an excuse they want special rights special privileges because they're disadvantaged well that's a type of discrimination too discrimination against people who pay their taxes people who obey the law people who earn what they get [Music] many definitions of discrimination definitions that have shaped themselves over generations definitions locked strongly in many people's minds many groups feel discriminated against are they all minorities is there anyone who is not a minority in some way at some time [Music] you