The Social Construction Of Racial Identity

The identity of an individual is formed during their adolescent years and the development of that identity plays a crucial role in an individual’s psychological well-being. Intercultural communications concern with identity is how it influences expectations about an individual’s social role and the guidelines it provides for communication and interaction. The texts definition of identity is that it is “abstract, complex, dynamic, and socially constructed” (p. 215). Identity is not easily defined, and many scholars have provided an assortment of descriptions as to what identity is. The numerous definitions are not intended to confuse people, but to show that identity is an abstract concept, which makes constructing a single description agreeable by all difficult. However, identities are not static and change over time, which is a “natural process of life experiences” (p. 215). Racial identity is a social construct built from society’s attempts to classify people into groups. Racial identity is most often associated with physical traits, skin color and facial appearance. Race and ethnic identity are often confused in the United States and very lose definitions are to blame. Ethnic identity or ethnicity is “derived from a sense of

An individual’s national identity often times becomes more pronounced when they are traveling from their home country, example is when people re asked where they are from, they will respond with their national identity. Most countries are formed by individuals from different cultural groups, but one dominant group usually maintains control and this leads to the development of the nation’s national character. Within a national identity there are regional identities. Those regional identities can be determined by state boundaries, or geographical areas. These cultural differences can be seen in food, accent, dialect, and