Games - Minority group

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The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sociological sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has less power (whether political or economic) than a dominant group. Examples of US minorities in this latter context include women and African Americans.

In a socio-economic context, the term "minority" tends to refer to groups of people who, according to a particular set of criteria, are fewer in population than other ethnic groups. All criteria for ethnicity have bearing on designating a minority — language, nationality, religion or culture. Often this means it is outnumbered by at least one other sub-group, but not always. The term sexual minority is sometimes used for groups (gay men and lesbians, transgendered individuals, etc.) whose sexual orientation or gender identity differs from the perceived norm.

In politics, a minority government may be one which is formed by a party with a plurality of seats in the national legislature, when no majority party exists.

A minority group refers to a social group whose members are subject to different and unequal treatment in the society in which they live; this differential treatment is based solely on an individual's perceived membership to a given minority group and without consideration of that individual's personal achievement. A distinction must be made between numerical minorities and majorities, defined by their relative size, and sociological minorities and majorities—the focus of this article—defined by their relative status; to aviod confusion, some authors alternately substitute the terms subordinate group and dominant group for the terms minority group and majority group, respectively.

Sociological minority groups

A majority, in sociological terms, is that segment of the population that outweighs all others combined, one that is dominant. The term minority is unavoidably associated with the political movements which push for assimilation, in which the minority group sheds its distinctive traits and is absorbed into the dominant group.

Generally speaking, a minority is any disadvantaged group, regardless of their size in comparison to the rest of the population. An example would be the numerically majority blacks in South Africa under the Apartheid system. The classic definition of a minority group, as put forward by sociologist Louis Wirth, is "a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination."

The definition includes both objective and subjective criteria: Membership to a minority group is objectively ascribed by society, based on an individual's physical or behavioral characteristics; it is also subjectively applied by its members, who may use their status as the basis of group identity or solidarity.

In any case, minority group status is categorical in nature: an individual who shows the physical or behavioral characteristics of a given minority group will be accorded the status of that group and be subject to the same treatment as other members of that group.

A society singles-out members for differential treatment based on a variety of categories, including (but not limited to) age, gender, race or ethnicity, disability, religion, and sexual orientation.

Racial or Ethnic Minorities

Religious Minorities

Here the role distribution is not intrinsic but historical: Muslims are a minority in predominantly Christian western societies, and vice versa.

Gender 'minority'

Even though the natural distribution of the genders tends to be roughly equal, in many societies one gender is traditionally dominant enough to be behave as a 'majority', making the other, in the modern age generally women, as a de facto minority.

Sexual minorities

Homosexuals, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals.

Agist minorities

The Elderly, while traditionally influential or even (in a gerontocracy) dominant in the past, have in the modern age usually been reduced to the minority role of economically 'non-active' groups.

The Disabled

In politics and government

In the politics of some countries, a minority is an ethnic group that is recognized as such by respective laws of its country and therefore has some rights that other groups lack. Speakers of a legally-recognized minority language, for instance, might have the right to education or communication with the government in their mother tongue. Countries that have special provisions for minorities include China, Germany, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom (which does maintain the concept of a British supra-nation, however). In the United States, the term minority typically refers to members of the non-white population, but since the population and power of whites has been decreasing over time in the US, using the term "minority" to identify non-whites in some regions is becoming a misnomer.

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