Renn, K. A. (2012). Creating and re-creating race: The emergence of racial identity as a critical element in psychological, sociological, and ecological perspectives on human development. In C. L. Wijeyesinghe & B. W. Jackson (Eds.), New perspectives on racial identity development: Integrating emerging frameworks (2nd ed., pp. 11-32). New York, NY: New York University Press.
“In the United States, race is a highly salient organizing social category. Race is a social construction based on physical appearance (skin color, hair color and texture, facial features), ancestry, nationality, and culture. It is used for identification–for example, to place individuals into demographic groups for various purposes- and as identity–the meaning individuals and groups ascribe to membership in racial categories. Identification results from external assignment or categorization, whereas identity results from internal processes as individuals encounter external influences. The history of racial identification and racial identity in the United States began with the European colonization of North America and continues into the twenty-first century. Public policies related to affirmative action, school desegregation, immigration, and population demographics (for example, the decennial Census) rely on the maintenance of a system of racial categorization–identification–that reinforces the existence of the categories themselves. An emphasis on individual identity and identity politics within U.S. culture renders racial identity and racial group membership critical components of psychosocial identity. What connects the macro level of public policy to the micro level or individual identity is the experience of living as a racialized human being in the United States, or the daily experience of seeing and being seen through the lens of race. Racial identification and identities form this lens for people of color and White people” (pp. 11-12).