To answer the first question, let’s look instances where we don’t use the term “minorities.” Somewhere around 5 percent of college students major in engineering,9 but we would never refer to those people as “academic minorities.” Why? Because the term has a special connotation in contemporary culture. It is not a mathematical term, but a political and philosophical one. For example, even though most undergraduate university degrees are granted to female students,10 no one would refer to men as “academic minorities”—but we refer to women not only in academic but professional settings as
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