'Minority' Label Gets a Second Look in Boston
January 21, 2002
Cindy Rodriguez, The Boston Globe
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Brooke Woodson isn't sure of the solution, but he can put his finger on the problem. It's right there, on a placard on his door, in white capital letters. The word "minority."
"I have never liked that word," said Woodson, an African-American who is director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise.
As Boston steps into the forefront of a growing debate over whether the word has the outdated ring of "Negro," "Oriental," "Spanish," and "Eskimo," there's discord over which replacement term to use.
The Boston City Council, which voted unanimously last month to delete the term from official documents (Mayor Thomas M. Menino later vetoed the move) favors "people of color." But many argue that this leaves out light-skinned people.
In San Diego, the only US city that has banned the word "minority" from official use, they use the terms "people of color," "underserved," and "underrepresented." The contract compliance office uses "DBE," the acronym for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
Boston College prefers the ethnic-sounding acronym "AHANA," which stands for African, Hispanic, Asian, Native American. Every year since 1979, the school has made the term "AHANA" part of freshman orientation for students accustomed to hearing the word "minority."
"The word helps form a coalition of students of color," said Donald Brown, director of the Office of AHANA Student Programs, which focuses on retention and graduation. "I emphasize that it doesn't take away from them. I tell them that the sum is greater than all their parts."
In Boston, the fight isn't over. City Councilor Charles Yancey said he will try to address the mayor's concerns that dropping the word "minority" could have unintentional negative consequences, particularly with programs that depend on such language to get special funding.
If that doesn't work, Yancey said, he will pursue an override of the Menino veto, which requires the votes of nine of the 13 councilors.
Like Yancey, opponents of the term say "minority" is inaccurate because minorities now make up more than 50 percent of the city population. They say it's demeaning because it has come to mean individuals who are lesser people.
Most have settled for the term "people of color." But that, too, has problems. Some say it sounds too much like "colored people." Others say it's too long.
Still others worry that it could lead to redefining who fits under that umbrella term.
Will it now include Arabs who have darker skin tones? Will it exclude light-skinned Latinos? What about Europeans from the Mediterranean who have a tannish complexion?
Pedro Pirez says that if you change the term from "minority" to "people of color," he would be left out.
"I am a minority but I am not a person of color," said Pirez, owner of Tara Construction, a company listed with the state as a minority-owned business. "If I say that I am, I'd be lying. I have white skin and blue eyes."
Pirez, 42, is a Cuban who came to the United States in the 1980 Mariel Boat Lift. He arrived with little and worked hard to build his business.
His skin color, he said, makes some wonder whether he's a minority. But Pirez feels minority status should not be based on color but on history of discrimination and repression.
In the United States, he said, whites don't accept him as white because of his Spanish accent. So, he says, "I don't fit in either side of the fence."
Pirez said he prefers the term "minority" because it defines a people who are at the bottom of the political, social, and economic ladder. "They say we are the majority but what does that translate to? Nothing. It translates to nada," he said. "We don't have any power. And that's because we're not united."
Others say Pirez is being too literal about the term.
Carolyn Golden Hebsgaard, executive director of the Boston Lawyers Group, an organization that helps law firms and other organizations recruit and retain African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans, said "people of color" does not imply skin color but refers to groups that are underrepresented.
For the record, Hebsgaard said she never uses the word "minority." The organization uses "students of color" or "attorneys of color."
She said it's the same reason why she uses "diverse work force" rather than "affirmative action" -- a phrase that became tainted by another word: "quotas."
As with any word undergoing transformation, there are those who have long abandoned "minority," others who use "minority" and "people of color" interchangeably, and others who scoff at the new term as squeaky political correctness.
Tina Andrews, director of the Minority Supplier Development Council of New England, which acts as a liaison between minority suppliers and businesses, is in the latter group.
"Our name describes what we do," said Andrews, who is African-American. "Without the word 'minority' in our name it would be hard for individuals to understand what we do."
"Besides, 'People of Color Supplier Development Council of New England' doesn't sound good."
Throughout Greater Boston, there are many colleges and research centers that have programs that use the term 'minority.' There is the Boston University School of Medicine's Office of Minority Affairs. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has the Pre-Engineering Program for Minority Students. There's also the Massachusetts Minority State Police Officers Association.
None of the above are considering a name change.
But in San Diego, the only city in the nation that has banned the term in City Hall lexicon, the change has created the terms that city workers now use: "people of color," "underrepresented," "underserved," and "DBE."
So far, city officials say, no problems have arisen from the name change, which took effect last spring. It's been a smooth transition, said City Councilor Ralph Inzunza, who is Mexican-American. It was especially important to make the change, he said, in a city where there really is no clear majority.
Inzunza said it was interesting that during the public hearings not one person asked to keep the term 'minority.'
Closer to home, Woodson struggles with what he would like to call his office. Six years ago, during an office retreat, he put the question to his staff.
"Office of People of Color and Women Business Enterprise"?
Too long, he said. It was clunky. They offered other suggestions, but in the end, "none of the names satisfied me," he said.
Source: (c) 2002, The Boston Globe. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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