In American Mosaics, Karl Woodkey argues:
"American identity is a process that is best understood if one apprehends two key factors. First, American identity occurs within 		the primary contexts of race, class, and gender. Secondly, one must understand  that the primary conflicts in American identity emerge from these contexts."
There are two parts that must be analyzed in order to understand the basic logic of Woodkey’s argument. First, we must apprehend that race, class, and gender are social constructs because it groups us into different categories. Secondly, because of the above idea, we can conclude that the “primary conflicts” emerge from these social constructs due to a quarrel over power of influence or in other words our agency. This quarrel occurs due to the fact that these social constructs predetermine our agency. Ultimately, Woodkey seems to argue that society is built as a hierarchy where race, class, and gender affect our predetermined influence and this enables conflicts where we struggle for agency. This becomes clear when one thinks critically about the examples provided from the secondary texts that are, “Diversity Day”, “Loneliness an American Malady”, “Does America Still Exist?”,  “The Cult of Ethnicity”, and “Chicana”. The evidence from each text prove Woodkey’s claims, however not each category of race, class, and gender is shown as a source of conflict in some of the texts.
	Firstly, B. J. Novak’s “Diversity Day” shows relation to Woodkey’s argument through the nuances of conflict expressed by characters being offended by Michael which at its core is caused by the idea of race. For example, when Michael does the skit of an Indian convenience store cashier to his Indian employee she physically hits him. What is shown is that she obviously is offended because Michael does not treat her well. A better way of describing her feeling would be that she feels she was not represented in a fair manner. The primary conflict in this scenario is between how Michael portrays her race and how she feels by being misrepresented because of her race. And this whole scenario is caused by the idea of race itself because race is a social construct that allows people to be treated differently. This social construct separates us into different categories and enables us to strive for agency because others will be above others in this system. In this example we see her struggle for agency through being offended which correlates to how Woodkey describes that conflict arises from race.