In the United States, "minority" is often used as a crude stand-in for "against which society is often biased". For example, "women and minorities" is a common grouping-together despite women having a percentage majority in the country.
This is actually so prevalent I've heard people say "minorities, like women" in contexts where the term "minority" is definitely not used in a relative sense (i.e. they were really referring to a group that represents roughly half the population as a "minority"). It carries a lot of political baggage.
