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With all the talk about minorities in this country and the heat that is so often generated by the topic, have you ever thought about where you fit? Are you a member of some minority group and, if so, how has it affected your life, your beliefs and values, your perceptions of others, your friends and associates, your job or profession, your expectations and, of course, your day to day activities.

Even if you have never thought of yourself as a member of a minority group, chances are, when you examine the details of your personal circumstances, you will find that you are. Consider just some of the many and varied categories that can determine your status:

- Ethnic: Asian, Hispanic, Native American, Indian, East Indian, African, etc.

- Race: White, Black, Asian, other

- Gender: Male, female, gay

- Religion: Christianity (about 33% of the world's population, including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Latter-day Saint, Seventh Day Adventist, Nestorianism, etc.), Islam (about 20% of the world's population, Sunni and Shia), Hinduism (13%), Chinese fold religion (6.3%), or Buddhism (5.9%). Atheist and other non-believers are about 14% of the world's population. Other religions, such as Sikhism, Judaism, Baha'i, Janism, Shinto and others, each represent about one-half-of-one percent of the world's population. There are many more types and categories of religions and religious beliefs, but this illustrates the multitude of those that most people generally follow.

In the United States, we seem to have elevated the issue of minorities, who is and who is not part of a minority group, to a major if not THE primary consideration in a wide variety of choices. Decisions, such as college entrance and employment criteria, employee relations, customer relations, housing, business associations, friendships, pretty much every aspect of American life.

Our laws have become such a labyrinth of complex considerations that we are forced to navigate in making decisions about hiring, firing and disciplining employees, making public statements, and membership in service clubs and other groups, among others. All decision making, personal, public and business, must be processed through a minefield of potentially risky options, with the consequences of making a poor or incorrect decision ranging from loss of one's position or status to being sued to public approbation.

The New York Times reported in an August 14, 2008 article, "William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said that by the 2028 presidential election, racial and ethnic minorities will constitute a majority of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 for the first times...When the first census was conducted in 1790, about 64 percent of the people counted were white...By 1900, about 9 in 10 Americans were non-Hispanic white, most of European ancestry.

America.gov noted in August 2008, "By 2050, minorities -- those who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or mixed race -- will account for 54 percent of the U.S. population..." And, U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that about 10 percent of the nation's 3,000 plus counties have already reached the point where they are over 50 percent minority population.

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