Social Cognition, Ethnic Identity, and Ethnic Specific Strategies for Coping with Threat due to Prejudice and Discrimination

Diversity is a much used term in the United States. Diversity means the existence of peoples from different cultures, who speak different languages, hold different religious beliefs, rituals and practices, celebrate different holidays, take pleasure in different forms of entertainment, interact with family and friends in different ways, and enjoy different types of food and food preparation. Diversity also implies that people, because of the color of their skin color and physical appearance, are easily identifiable as different from the majority group. Although, historians note that diversity is not new in America, something has changed the discourse of diversity (Takaki, 1993). At least three macrochanges are in part responsible for how we view diversity today. These changes include the Civil Rights movement that began in the 1960s, the large increase in Hispanic and Asian populations due to changes in immigration policy beginning in 1965, and economic and political upheavals in developing countries that have resulted in large-scale migration to America. Collectively, these forces have changed the racial and ethnic landscape of this country.