Kenneth Burke's Definition Of Identification Theory

Illegals, aliens, wetbacks. These are all words that have been used by our society to describe the immigration status of undocumented individuals. However, when we hear these terms, most of us make the assumption that we are referring to one specific group of people. In our minds, we create the image of someone from Latino or Hispanic descent, crossing the Mexican border through the Rio Grande River. Unfortunately, in the United States, this is the stereotypical profile of an undocumented immigrant. Even though pro-immigration organizations such as United We Dream work hard to try to fight this common portrayal, in many of its own campaigns and stories that they put out, they continue to feed into this erroneous representation by failing to

He explains his definition of identification through letters: “A is not identical to his colleague B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is identified with B. Or he may identify himself with B even when their interests are not joined, if he assumes that they are, or is persuaded to believe so” (Burke 20). Burke says that identification can occur between individuals who share similar interests and experiences, but then he goes on to demonstrate his concept of consubstantiality: “In being identified with B, A is ‘substantially one’ with a person other than himself. Yet at the same time he remains unique …Thus he is both joined and separate, at once a distinct substance and consubstantial with another”(Burke 21). The concept of consubstantiality basically says that even though two individuals identify with each other, that does not mean that they are the exact same person now. Consubstantiality says that “you [can] persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his” (Burke 55) but ultimately, they are still their own person and entitled to their own opinions. Many scholars, such as Day, have tried to simplify the concepts that Burke puts forward. For example, he says that “Burke’s theory of persuasion can be summarized in this way: The speaker by using linguistic strategies which give signs to his hearers that

Such strategy “is a subtle means of establishing a feeling of commonality [and] to imply identification and a common purpose and struggle” (Stewart, Denton, and Smith 145). However, United We Dream is still lacking the “substance” in consubstantiality in many of its messaging. These common images, ideas and attitudes are necessary to get non-Latino immigrants to identify and participate with the organization and increase their membership. The group, which promotes diversity and dignity for all immigrants (United We Dream web) seems to focus all of their messaging and resources around the Latino image. United We Dream can improve some of their current strategies, such as story telling, by using the consubstantiality concept of the identification theory, and can also develop new material directed towards some of the non-visible immigrants who want to be noticed and received resources and feel part of a group in which they can share similar