While reading Robert Putnam’s paper “E Pluribus Unum” it was interesting to learn about Robert Putnam’s two theories on how immigration and diversity impact a community. His two theories, the contact theory and conflict theory both predict different scenarios that can occur when two races exist in one area. The contact theory has a more positive outlook, predicating that two races in constant contact with one another will most likely accept one another. The two races will learn to care and accept each other, raising the social trust among the two groups. Ultimately the contact theory predicts that in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, people will trust one another more and not really focus on their racial differences.

On the other hand, Putnam’s other theory, the conflict theory, takes an opposite stance. According to the conflict theory when two or more different races live in the same vicinity, they will begin highlighting the difference among them, making it much harder for them to accept one another. Ultimately the conflict theory predicts that the more ethnically diverse a neighborhood is, the less people trust the other races. It is interesting because it makes sense that people of a certain ethnicity will feel safer when surround by others of the same ethnicity because they tend to be more similar.

In my life, I personally have experienced the contact theory when I lived in Manhattan. My building was filled with a concoction of ethnicities, primarily Hispanic and African Americans and over time the different races were really accepting of one another. Although my parents are Bengali, they were able to get along with the different races in our building because my parents ultimately realized that regardless of race, the people in our building faced the same struggles and had the same aspirations as them. They found many commonalties, which helped raise the social trust in the building.