The concept of race and ethnicity is closely interwoven with the immigration history of the United States and, therefore, the concepts provide essential issues for discussion. The analysis of such issues as stereotypic thinking, racial discrimination, and slavery also relate to the notions of race and ethnicity.
The main challenges of discussing racial discrimination and ethnicity are associated with social perspectives of analysis, but not with its biological distinction. In particular, understanding race as a social phenomenon does not provide substantial grounds for protecting human rights.
The history of immigration proves that the concept of race has always been regarded through sociological prism. In this respect, many issues are raised about the societal norms, values, and rights.
The analysis of U.S. immigration history reveals that people testify to the concept of race for developing and arranging social organization. For instance, irrelevant attitude to African Americans is premised on their historical past, the period when African population migrated to the United States to serve the white population.
Therefore, this social class had long belonged to inferior groups, which had a potent impact on community vision, leading to the development of negative stereotypes.
Using racial distinctions for building a social environment creates grounds for the dominant community to take control of the minority groups. As a result, distorted perception has led to the rise of irrelevant attitude to ethnic minorities. Such a perspective is predetermined by individual and cultural issues.
Racial discrimination is strongly correlated with ethnicity groups because both concepts rely on social belief systems and cultural perception. Similar to racially distinguished groups, ethnic minorities strive to follow a sense of community and cultural growth. The American population is composed of multiple ethnic groups and, therefore, minorities need to adhere to the dominating social system.
However, the majority of ethnic communities resist the assimilation process because of the fear of losing their identity. Under these circumstances, most scholars and researchers often identity the concept of race with that of ethnicity due to a number of contradictions.
Currently, the synergy of two concepts creates grounds for anthropologists to use the definition of ethnicity instead of race, which contributes to an already contradicting situation because the nature of the terms is different.
Nowadays, the modern community faces the definition problem of ethnicity and racial discrimination in the context of the developed attitude to minority groups. However, due to the rise of the cultural diversity issues, society approaches these issues with more significant concern to eliminate any displays of unequal treatment.
Despite the negative consequences of perceiving ethnic minorities, these groups are more respected in the modern society due to the new directions in development and preservation of cultural heritage. Therefore, a compromise should be found between the ethnic groups co-existing in one territory. Loss of connection certainly influences the cultural heritage and tradition, but this does not worsen the situation.
The U.S. immigration history has introduced shifts in perceiving race and ethnicity. Tangible changes in understanding – from negative connotation during the period of enslavement to the current development of equality issues – have created a new ground that exterminates any displays of unequal attitude to various races and ethnicities.
Therefore, current understanding of ethnicity is closely connected with the development of globalized community. Despite the recent trends in treatment, superior communities still exercise control over lower classes. However, recent changes could provide a better outlook on cross-cultural communication.