Perhaps  first, before looking at the issue of differential education
            
 and opportunities, for minority students, we should look at what the term
            
  racial and ethnic minorities' means in a US setting.
            
       Many different peoples have settled in the United States, and each
            
 group had its own reason for coming - perhaps they came to avoid religious
            
 persecution or poverty in their homeland, or perhaps they came
            
 involuntarily through slavery (Excerpted from a nice discussion to be found
            
 http://www.geokey.de/jobusa/hinweise.landeskunde.ethnic_and_racial_minoritie
            
       Due to this diversity of people, it is often said that America is the
            
 great "melting pot" where personal freedom and equality of opportunity are
            
 guaranteed regardless of race, colour or creed (Excerpted from a nice
            
 http://www.geokey.de/jobusa/hinweise.landeskunde.ethnic_and_racial_minoritie
            
       Since World War II, making this vision of a harmonious multiracial
            
 society into a reality has become a key public issue, backed by racial
            
 discrimination laws and Affirmative Action programs; however, attitudes of
            
 individuals vary from the liberal to the antagonistic, depending on area,
            
 upbringing and education, and America still has a very long way to go in
            
 the fight against prejudice and racism (Excerpted from a nice discussion to
            
 http://www.geokey.de/jobusa/hinweise.landeskunde.ethnic_and_racial_minoritie
            
       What are  ethnic minorities'' Ethnic minorities differ in some
            
 cultural respect, for example, language, religion or customs from the
            
 majority group (Excerpted from a nice discussion to be found at
            
 http://www.geokey.de/jobusa/hinweise.landeskunde.ethnic_and_racial_minoritie
            
       Examples of cultural differences include language - every European
            
 country is represented in the population of the US, and 1 in 10 Americans
            
 speak a language other than English at home: Swedes, Germans, etc. may
            
 still be identified by their mothe...