Minority rights refers to the area of the law that applies to individual rights for persons who belong to various groups, including ethnic, racial, class, linguistic, sexual, and religious minorities. It also applies to the individual rights of persons who suffer from disabilities, such as those with a developmental delay, HIV/AIDS positive individuals, or the hearing impaired. Although women are not technically a minority group, as a group they may face many of the same disadvantages as other minorities including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and LGBT individuals. For instance, most members of the groups listed above are less likely to have equal access to employment and education.
Minority rights can easily be overlooked when the most decision makers belong to a majority group. In the past, the civil rights movement in the United States, which brought about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sought to ensure that everyone was afforded equal rights in the United States, regardless of their belonging to any group whatsoever. In spite of this law, many groups are still at a disadvantage. For instance, African Americans and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be the targets of racial profiling. Women, African Americans, and Hispanics are also likely to be paid less for doing the same job as a white male. While legislation is in place to protect these minorities under the law, discrimination is a daily reality for many of them.
Women’s rights refer to the body of law that addresses uniquely female concerns, needs, and legal protection. Various women’s rights movements have made enormous strides in equality in the past century. For instance, until the 1860s, women were not allowed to own property. In the 1920s, women fought for and were granted the right to […]
The American Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a law that extended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to all individuals, including the mentally and physically handicapped, HIV/AIDS infected persons, and former abusers of drugs and/or alcohol. At the time, there were an estimated 40 million people in the United States who fell into the […]
Native Americans, after years of discrimination and neglect, began organizing in the 1960s, alongside the Civil Rights movement. Since then, Native American communities have continued to recover and grow, and now play a greater role in the economy and in their own communities. Native American communities typically form their own governments, which in turn deliver […]
Campaigns for equal rights are a recent undertaking among the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. In the 1980s, a number of states took initiatives to pass laws that prohibited employers, universities, and federal agencies from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The Clinton administration was responsible for promoting the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, […]
HIV/AIDS is a public health issue unlike any other. It began as an epidemic and when no one understood how it was spread, a campaign of fear ensued. In the early 1980s, infected individuals were evicted from their homes and fired from their jobs. It soon became clear that HIV was spread through bodily fluids; […]
The term Hispanic American refers to someone of Hispanic ancestry who currently resides in or is a citizen of the United States. Latinos are generally considered Hispanic Americans as well. Thus, Hispanics in the United States may be from countries including Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Cuba, among others. Languages spoken among Hispanic Americans […]
The abolishment of slavery in the United States, which was adopted as law in 1865, was the first step in minority rights for African Americans. Although it was a great step forward in the history of the United States, African Americans were far from equals under the law. In the southern states, “black codes” were […]