The two theories I will evaluate in this essay are social identity theory and acculturation. Social identity theory (SIT) was proposed by Turner and Tajfel (1979) and states that we aim to improve our own self-image by discriminating against people who do not belong to our group. The second theory, acculturation, is “the process of internalizing the rules of behavior in another culture” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2009, p.329). The question I will focus on in this article is how SIT and acculturation can be used to explain the discrimination Mesut Özil faced. Özil is a German footballer who has released statements, published in a newspaper article, highlighting his decision to leave the German team. I will compare the two theories and evaluate them against this journal article. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Our “social identity” refers to our knowledge that we belong to a certain social category or group (Hogg and Abrams, 1988). We naturally classify people into social groups and divide them into in-group (people who are similar to us) and out-group (people who are different from us). This is called social categorization, and through this process we tend to view our category as the best, because it is part of our identity. A study by Mastro, Behm-Morawitz, and Kopacz (2008) used the SIT to examine the effects of exposure to television portrayals of Latinos. Their results suggest that participants preferred the group and that their self-esteem was improved by making downward social comparisons. This can be used to explain why the German media blamed Özil for losing the World Cup. He explains in his statement how newspapers criticized his Turkish ancestry rather than his performance. The media's goal in this case was to create a story that would sell and they used Özil as an opportunity. The German people will naturally prefer people who belong to their group, as social identity theory says, and since Özil has Turkish heritage, they view him as part of an out-group. However, the SIT does not fully explain the racism towards Özil. . Özil belongs to the category of “German” and it is with this group that he identifies. He was born in Germany and has lived there all his life, but he faces discrimination because of his out-group membership. SIT claims that self-esteem increases when one has a group identity, but this is not the case for Özil since he is not accepted into the group he identifies as a member of. This suggests that a person's social identity based on group membership can only increase self-esteem through acceptance by that group, and reflects limited support for the effects of self-esteem ( Abrams, 1992; Abrams and Hogg, 1990). The process of acculturation occurs when two cultural groups come into contact, resulting in psychological and cultural change (Berry, 2017). Berry et al. (1986) described the strategies used by immigrants to cope with change between their own culture and the host culture, including integration, separation, assimilation, and marginalization. However, these strategies do not take into account a dynamic interaction between the two groups – it is about much more than the immigrant's approach to acculturation. The interaction acculturation model (Bourhis, 1997) better explains “.