Minority Groups: African Americans, Women, And Hispanics A minority group is made up of people who share a common set of cultural or physical characteristics that marks them as different from the powerful dominant group and for which they often suffer social disadvantages, because of their lack of power. As in the case of race and ethnicity, minority group membership is given by society. The most common minority groups are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Women. Low status jobs In 1997 African Americans were considered 12.5% of the U.S. population and 64.7% of their race participate