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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

The rights stuff

My English teacher Mrs. Lee would have been appalled at the sheer illogic of a sentence such as this:

Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday reveal that nearly one out of 10 counties are now classified as "majority-minority," meaning the county's population includes over 50 percent minority residents.

Of course that was back in the Stone Age, when "majority" meant over half in a political-rights sense, not "white," and "minority" meant less than half in a political-rights sense, not "non-white." Well, not just non-white. Women, currently about 51 percent of the popualtion, are also counted as "minority." The meaning of the words had to change to keep up with the meaning of rights. The old minority" had the right to equal treatment under the law. The new minority has the right to a share of the spoils.

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