American Culture Essay

Although race and ethnicity are in most cases used interchangeably, they are indeed different. Ethnicity comprises of the shared social background, traditions, and culture that are distinct and retained between generations of a group. On the other hand, race entails the biological differences in physical characteristics such as skin color (Senior and Bhopal 327). In essence, both race and ethnicity are key aspects in identity formation regardless of them being social construction phenomenon. In this case, the focus of this essay is to outline the social formation of racial and ethnic identities for Hispanic American and Native Americans (American Indians). Later on, the race aspect resulted in the need for scientific analysis to establish the biological differences. In this case, one of the primary approaches to establishing the Native Americans identity is blood quantum, which is used by both the group and the federal government.

According to Schmidt, the formation of the blood quantum approach can be understood from three historical periods – treaty, reservation, and, allotment. The treaty period identifies how the US negotiated treaties concerning the use of blood as a form establishing political entities. The reservation period details information concerning the Native Americans being put in the reservation and the federal regulation for assimilating some individuals from the indigenous people into American society. In contrast, his friend Valdes considers himself a white and associates more with the whites. Moreover, the color aspect dictates where they live, with Valdes living in Miami and Ruiz in Florida (Ojito). Conclusion In the US, racial and ethnic identities are socially constructed. Essentially, the identity formation of the Native American and the Hispanic Americans are elements of social construction.