Minority
For years, the term “minority” was defended by statistics showing how few people of color there were compared to white people. In 2012, it was revealed that by 2030 no racial group is projected to be a majority yet the term “minority” persists. Even as Black people represent roughly 13 percent of the population and Hispanic people represent roughly 17 percent of the population, anyone who doesn’t identify as white is still called a minority. Senior writer at SUNY Empire State College in New York, Hope E. Ferguson, slams the use of the term as “increasingly inaccurate” and insists that it “suggests powerlessness and has outlived its utility.”
Thug
Whether it’s a group of protesters or a NFL star excited about a great play, the media can’t help but consistently refer to Black men as “thugs.” “Sherman is correct that these days, a white person can object to a black person’s behavior as ‘thug’ in public, when what they mean is that the behavior was not just offensive but offensive in a way that associated, negatively, with black men,” Time wrote after Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was slammed as a “thug.” To make matters worse, the term has been celebrated in pop culture with concepts such as “thug life” and hip-hop stars like Young Thug rising to stardom.
