Evening star., 1943-06-26
"Minorities' Held .Non-Existent
Tp Raal narncrarv

In Real Democracy.
Before war was declared in 1889, it
will be remembered that Adolf Hitler
made frequent use of the term minor
ity" in connection with alleged mis-
treatment of German nationals or those
of German origin resident in territory
the Nazi fuehrer then coveted and has
since seized. OF late, our press has
repeatedly been employing the term
minority most frequently perhaps, in
writing of Americans of Negro descent,
but also in writing of other groups of
our citizens, such as those of Chinese or
Mexican ancestry, or, again. it may be
those of Jewish faith.
In fact, so often has she read the
word minority" of late in our metro
politan dailies that this writer has come
to ask herself just what or who, rather,
constitute the American majority. OF
course, the answer to that is the
American people-the zone out of many
the sum total Of the loyal citizens, no
matter what has been the country of
origin of any one of them, OF our
democracy-our United States of Amer
lea. Then, having supplied these an
swers to her own question, she has
demanded to know just wherein such
a democracy as ours-minorities come
in. And her decision, after much care
full thought, has been that, in genuine
democracy, there should be no ''minori-
ties" and that the use of such term.
applied to any selected group of Amer
lean citizens, is not only erroneous, but
unpatriotic, un- American, and the sort
of designation that is pleasing to Axis
ears. How better to divide a house
against itself than for some of its
citizens to refer to others as. mi
nority"?
If the use of the term Is, for example,
acceptable when it is applied, as it is
most frequently, to Americans of Negro
origin, then we might properly speak of
"the Syrian American minority" 'the
German American minority" ''the
French American minority" and so on
ad inf1nitum until we have these United
States divided into innumerable small
groups of citizens, exclusive of each
other, the emphasis being placed on
their differences and not on their
solidarity-on their racial backgrounds,
not on their American present and flu
ture. This writer happens to be of
British, Scotch and North River" Dutch
ancestry, but she would resent being
classed in "a minority of British h-Scotch-
North River -Dutch-Americans."
So, if she chanced to be an American
Negro, would she dislike being grouped
in an American Negro minority? 1t
seems to her that nothing could be more
harmful to an Americans self-esteem
than to have another American insist
that he or she must be classified as one
of minority" The very word smacks
of smallness-of dependence-of in
feriority-of lack of maturity and, what
is worse, of disunity. Our people are
traditionally made up of many peoples
In that fact lies our great strength,
both in the present and for the future,
particularly for the future. If some of
us are permitted to class others of us
in minority and if those so classed
accept such classification, the very
roots of democracy will be threatened
No one who is reader of several
newspapers, as this writer is, can have
avoided noticing how much agitation
II that be the correct word-there has
been in the press lately for American