A Minority of One

Anyone can tell you--and trust me, they will--that a minority is a group of people smaller than the majority (the larger group). And yes, the minority generally loses because of sheer lack of numbers. Take elections, for example. Those who bother to vote sometimes do not get what they wish: they are in the minority, and the majority are the winners, simply because there are more of them. That is the point. 

HOWEVER. 

Anyone can tell you--and trust me, they will--that any large group of people who are oppressed, or who are not heard or recognized, are a minority. Because those people voting in their election? Yes, they are a minority. But their opinion is recognized. Again, this is the point. When a large group of people is downtrodden and cannot be heard, their opinion is not even recognized. They do not even have the opportunity to be a minority, because they are not counted. To not get what you wish, you have to wish for something. 

Roman women. Majority (yes, majority) victims of genocide. Any racial minority (yes, minority) anywhere. 

The word "minority" is not simply a way of counting. To many, it has connotations of oppression, of unfairness, and of dehumanization.

Anyone can have an opinion, and as long as that opinion is recognized, they have the chance to be heard, however few their numbers are. It is groups, of any size, who are seen and not heard, obeying and uncomplaining, who are minorities. If one small person is heard, they have made a difference. And if an enormous, or tiny, group is not heard, they cannot make a difference, and are silenced, made inconsequential. They are a minority, in a deeper way that transcends the power of numbers.