San Diego bans "minority"

New Crisis, The, May/Jun 2001 by Valentine, Victoria

The San Diego City Council unanimously (8-0) approved a resolution to discontinue the use of the word "minority" to describe ethnic groups in official city documents, such as employment papers and contracts.

San Diego Deputy Mayor George Stevens, who is African American, spearheaded the April 2 vote because he says the word is no longer accurate when referring to certain non-white groups, including African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans, as being fewer in numbers. The word also has a negative, inferior connotation, he adds.

San Diego's population of 1.2 million is 8 percent African American and 40 percent non-white. Twenty-five percent of the population is of Hispanic origin.

"My conclusion is that it seems like people who are white, who are not persons of color, they need to have someone who is less than. So, therefore, to have a majority you have to have a minority," says Stevens.

The deputy mayor has been advocating that city governments institute the ban since 1999, when he presented the idea to the National League of Cities' National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials.

"To the extent people feel that use of that word implies [being] inferior or less than, I can understand we shouldn't use the word," says Petrina Burnham, president of the San Diego branch of the NAACP. "But my major concern is not so much what we are called, but how we are treated and [whether or not the city has] programs and policies that [positively] affect people of color."

Stevens says he hasn't used the word "minority" in many years, and personally prefers the term "people of color." However, going forward, the city of San Diego will not use any group label. Each race or ethnicity will be referred to individually in documents.