Research Paper on:
Ethnicity, Race, and Religion in the United States

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a defining characteristic of what it means to be an American and how ones own ethnicity and race fits into the mix. For example, there was a time in which  an African-American or Japanese-American family in a small, primarily white community would be thought of as "okay" or otherwise "acceptable" since the family members were devout Lutherans active in their  church. That designation somehow superseded race, at least for the white Lutherans, in ways that could not have occurred had the African-American family been Southern Baptists or the Japanese-American family  had been Buddhists. Ironically, neither designation has anything to do with the ethnicity of those involved, only their belief systems. And in ascribing to the same beliefs, race was  somehow negated in the ability of the person or persons to be "just like us." They had somehow crossed the "otherness" boundary. Of course, such acceptances or connection is fundamentally  superficial. Belief systems rarely transcend the larger social structures in which they exist. Religion has an important role in the development of race and ethnicity and it is why that  non-white family involved with a Lutheran congregation is far more of an exception than a rule. Religion and Race in America It is always important, essential even, to  keep in mind the fact that American society is a pluralistic society in which diversity is supposed to be valued and celebrated. All too often though, diversity has suffered in  the unspoken preference for assimilation and continuity. Religion will always be an important identity "marker" but it is often seen as an attribute associated with race. In her study  of Koran-Americans in Chicago, Kelley Chong (1998) found that when an ethnic group is faced with a strong sense of social marginalization believed to arise from its racial status, the