Mexican Americans today face many of the same acts of individual racism as Blacks but there is even more of a similarity between the institutional racism that both groups face. Acts of institutional racism are rules or laws set up in society to directly and systematically exclude certain people from obtaining total assimilation and often directly impacting one's quality of life. Items such as zoning laws, housing and employment availability and quality of education seem to be set up so that these two groups will never be able to escape what is referred to as a "web of pathology." Even more so, Mexicans have to deal with institutional racism in immigration laws. Many theorists believe that this is the reason Blacks seem to be confined to the ghetto and Mexicans to the "barrio." Many of those who have been unable to escape their surroundings have chosen to separated rather than assimilate. To assimilate into one's culture one must adhere to the customs and lifestyle of the host culture and take it on as their own. Some minorities choose to do this, those who do not separate, often totally from the eyes of the majority race. Both Blacks and Mexican Americans can be categorized as having members who have assimilated and separated. Theories about assimilation versus separation and the debate about institutional racism are both interesting and compelling subjects to write on. But, perhaps the most compelling issues I have found regarding these two racial ethnic groups are conflict theory and order theory. Order theorists believe in the motto America is supposedly founded on, the notion that "all men are created equal" and eventually racial conflicts will be nonexistent and all will assimilate. Conflict theorists believe that no minority group will have total assimilation into society because "it is not in the best interest of the majority group." By this, conflict theorists mean that by giving all Americans that chance to assimilate, White America will lose some of its power and influence.