What is a “Minority” Group?

• Traditionally in US, “minority” refers to all non-white population groups as measured by the census.

• The US census reports the population every ten years in the very broad groups of White, Black (African-American), Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander/Alaskan Native, and American Indian.

• Census information can be incomplete or misleading for several reasons, including:

  • Census data are self-reported and voluntary. People may decline to answer or may give answers that do not reflect their dominant ancestry. Elderly people may hold values that were formed when they were young. For example older individuals with some Native American ancestry rarely self-classify as “American Indian” because of discrimination and biases against Native Americans.
  • The census classifications are difficult for people of mixed race to answer accurately
  • The census only counts people who can be interviewed or surveyed so undercounts several groups including elderly people who are undocumented, highly mobile or homeless, and those with cognition, language or literacy problems.
  • Hispanics can be of any race. The census asks separate questions to identify Hispanics, thus has more room for error with this group.

  Note “Hispanic” in US includes multiple subgroups. Especially in western US, the term “Latino” (feminine form Latina) is preferred to “Hispanic”. Other terms e.g. “Chicano” should be avoided as they can be derogatory to some groups and individuals.

• Above all, minority groups are very crude labels for huge numbers of very different people

  e.g. Nigerian, Jamaican, and African-American are all classified as “Black”; Iranian, Scottish, and Russian are all “White”; Pakistani, Filipino, and Chinese are all “Asian”. Members of these groups may share little common culture and may even have long histories of conflict - they may be insulted to be assumed to be from a neighboring country (e.g. Korean and Japanese- or even English and Scots!). Conversely, their families may have lived in the US for centuries and they may be offended to be regarded as ‘immigrants” (e.g. Hispanic families resident in Arizona prior to the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848).

Minority: Elderly Minorities | Minority Groups | Significance | ETHNICS | Factors | Beyond the Words...
Hispanic: Health Care for Elders | Health Problems | Managing Health Problems | Aspects of Dementia
African-American: Health Care for Elders | Managing Health Problems | Aspects of Dementia

Last Modified: June 26, 2007