Relationship of Race and Ethnicity Essay

Former President Jimmy Carter once said, We support construct not a melting pot but a picturesque mosaic. Different people, diverse beliefs, unalike yearnings, different hopes, different dreams (iCelebrateDiversity. com). The United States has liberal to be a country of immigrants filled with different beliefs, cultures, faiths, and heritages. Therefore, there is a diverse heathenish population among the people of America.Theories seek to explain wherefore heathen distinctions are made in the low gear place, why several(prenominal) cultural groups discriminate against others, why prejudice outlasts, why some ethnic groups remain identifiable, and why others melt into the dominant culture. Many different theories exist concerning ethnic relations (Aguirre and turner 32). My racial and ethnic personal individuation comes from what these theories or theoretical perspectives founder to say. There are two theories that relate to my racial and ethnic identity. The first is called the preoccupation theory.Milton Gordon (1964) emphasizes, it is to the middle class cultural patterns of innocence, Anglo-Saxon culture that immigrants to the United States have had to adapt (Aguirre and Turner 33). What he is look was that every ethnic group that has immigrated to the United States has had to change their customs and slipway to adapt to the white, Anglo-Saxon culture. There are different degrees in which the different ethnic subpopulations had to make progress in adjusting to the Anglo-Saxon culture.Cultural engrossment occurs when the values, beliefs, dogmas, ideologies, language, and other systems of symbols of the dominant culture are adopted (Aguirre and Turner 33). all told the ethnic groups have been culturally assimilated to the Anglo-Saxon culture. Along with cultural assimilation comes structural assimilation. Structural assimilation occurs when migrant ethnic groups become members of the uncomplicated groups deep down dominant ethnic subp opulations like their families, close friends, cliques within clubs, and groups within organizations (Aguirre and Turner 33).It is harder to accomplish structural assimilation than cultural assimilation because it involves entrance money into interacting and associating with the dominant ethnic groups. Members of ethnic groups may lack more primeval and personal connections with members of dominant ethnic groups even when they enter more unoriginal and formal structures like schools, workplaces, and political arenas. The social identity theory, besides cognize as the mental theory, is the most prominent psychological approach to ethnic relations.One level of the psychological theory, called the persona identity, is the identity that each forgiving universe has of themselves in certain roles like being a father, mother, worker, student, and so forth. The second level of identity is self-conception and involves emotions, cognitions, and evaluations that people make of their w hole self. A third level, and the one most relevant to ethnic relation, is social identity and it emerges when people see themselves as members of a social category love seat other social categories (Aguirre and Turner 37).For example, one kind of social identity is being male or female or being African American or Latino. Once social identities are formed, they take on a life of their own. Individuals are born into families whose members carry these identities, with the result that the unripened are socialized in to the prototype of beliefs, norms, and behaviors appropriate to this identity (Aguirre and Turner 38). Socialization moves past the family to friends and organizations if they have a high rate of closeness with non-family members who hold this same identity.The race of my family is Asian and the ethnicity is Vietnamese. Since I am the first generation of my family in the United States, I would be Asian-American. These theories I have talked about explain a lot about w hat my racial and ethnic identity is. The assimilation theory talks about being heedless into the middle-class Anglo-Saxon culture. I think that my family has done well into adopting and immix the Anglo-Saxon culture with our own Vietnamese culture. I was born and increase in a middle-class rural area where the population is firmly filled with white Anglo-Saxon people.I went to grade, middle, and high school where everyone close to me was white and I was the only or among a few Asian students. To get along with the society around us, my family and I had to change up some customs and beliefs in order to associate properly with the white Anglo-Saxon people. or so changes my parents have made was learning to speak and save English, learning how to cook and eat American food, and learning how to live and take freely since Vietnam has many restrictions.I have been very fortunate to have a wide range of diverse friends and been able to join sports teams and clubs during school. Th e psychological theory has created identities that make me unique from the people around me. Some role identities that make me who I am are being a student, son, brother, cousin, friend, and worker. Some self-conception roles I have attained are being grateful for what I have in front of me, being generous and considerate to others, having goodness manners, and standing up for myself when Im disrespected.My social identities include being male, Asian-American, Vietnamese, Pennsylvanian, and Catholic. The psychological theory has helped me determine who I am and where I belong. It also has informed me that being Asian has made me look at some(prenominal) the differences and similarities between the Asian and Anglo-Saxon cultures. In conclusion, these theories have really helped me discover my racial and ethnic background spectrum. They have allowed me to recognize how my family and I transitioned to the American way of life.Since Im Asian-American, I can have the trump out of both worlds the Asian music and food and the American way of life story and freedom. I am very fortunate to be living in a country with so many different people with different backgrounds, beliefs, and custom. Works Cited Aguirre, Jr. , Adalberto, and Jonathan H. Turner. American Ethnicity The Dynamics and Consequences of Discrimination. Sixth. New York McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. , 2009. Print. Diversity Quotes. iCelebrateDiversity. com. Web. 2 Oct 2009. .