Abstract
America has been classifying people by the color of their skin for centuries. The notion of race is a social construct, which the government of United States has utilized to categorize individuals into racial groups. In the past when the mixing of an individual from the dominant racial group and a minority individual occurred, the norm was to automatically label the child after the minority race. However, as mixing between minority groups happened, researchers began to analyze the reasons behind the self-labeling choice of these individuals. This current research attempts to analyze the various factors which influence the choice of identifying with one or multiple races, cultures or ethnicities. The study takes into account the participants; past experiences, racial make-up of childhood versus current peer group, family and school influences. The result shows that the individual understanding of race is different in each participant, and that the identification with an ethnicity or culture takes precedents over identifying with a race.