San Diego

San Diego Unified School District officials will no longer use the terms “majority” and “minority” to refer to white and non-white students, the Board of Education decided in a unanimous vote Tuesday.

Instead, reports and other documents for board members and the public will use the specific racial category when reference to an ethnic group is necessary. The categories include white, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Asian, black and Filipino.

The action came after several members of community advisory groups complained earlier this year that the term “minority” struck them as derogatory. In addition, the term, traditionally used to designate black students in the district, has become less accurate because of the district’s increasingly multiethnic makeup. The “majority” and “minority” terms will still be required in certain reports for state and federal authorities, whose jurisdictions still use the terminology.