Introduction
The impact of ethnicity and culture in America shows that a voter inclination towards the “closest” person in the election race is based on issues related to ethnic and partisan identification. What influences voters to make a particular voting decision? From the reading, I have come to the opinion that the voter's decision is skewed depending on the candidate’s position, partisanship and evolution, which in turn are influenced by population statistics such as ethnicity, place of residence, socioeconomic factors and religion.
I have come to learn that, American politics is under the influence of ethnic and partisanship. Voters tend to make voting decisions based on their ethnic background or party affiliation. Mostly, ethnicity is the strong determinant that plays a major role in determining the choice of the candidate. Black American will vote for a black candidate and Hispanic voter will vote for a Hispanic candidate. Based in this, voting is done irrespective of the party that the candidate comes from, and partisanship comes at hand when the voter does not have “one of his/her own” or a candidate from an ethnic group. This trend is a historical event; it has been that way for decades. Despite acculturation and assimilation, this trend is still witnessed to be playing a significant role in the American politics. Many theories have been developed to prove this, and all have shown positive agreement to this trend. Bloc voting persists because of ethnic and partisanship power.
In my opinion, there exists a racial or ethical hierarchy in America, which makes it difficult for a minority group to adopt and receive particular ways of doing things or types of individuals. For example, American blacks from the past and at the present moment faced negative stereotypes in matters concerning intelligence, morality and ethnicity. The Hispanics experienced the same stereotypes but to some extent, they have been accepted and incorporated into the white society, unlike the black Americans. However, this prejudice at some extend tend to diminish when the black-Hispanics-white friendship develops between the people of the “equal status” with the person from a minority group. Whites do believe in such relationship based on the status of an individual from the minority society. I think that, the non-conformity stereotype is one factor that show the wave in which American politics is taking based on the ethnicity.
As I have clearly found out, people living in a given proximity of the geographical area tend to develop a culture that makes them make mass decisions in matters regarding politics. Minority group in a given geographical area may tend to develop bloc votes to a particular candidate irrespective of the party or ethnic group. This culture cannot be seen in; for example, black Americans living in different states, or are geographically distributed over large geographical area. In this case, I think bloc voting cannot work well; rather ethnicity and partisanship will always play a role when it comes to voting decisions.
Conclusion
My conclusion about American politics is that, cultural and ethnic difference plays a major role in determining the direction that voters will take during the voting time. Voters will vote in the favor of their ethnic candidate. Partisanship and ethnicity stand out to be independent variables that can be used to determine the election votes. The rigidity of the minority group to adopt accept certain ways of doing things or some individual based on the past negative experiences, can be one of the factors which encouraged this type of behavior.
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Work cited
Kevin A. Hill, Dario V. Moreno & Lourdes. Racial and Partisan Voting In a Tri-Ethnic City. Florida International University: 2003.
