ABSTRACT
Racial identity, including appearance, language, religion or other ascribed characteristics, affects the lives of millions of people who are forced to define and even defend themselves in relation to it. Identity and the privileged meanings of it form the social core of all human groups. Humans exert control over others by utilising socially constructed images and terms in language and behaviour to create hierarchy and legitimise actions. Thus, race is a cultural notion applied and used in specific ways to structure, legitimise or reproduce political and economic conditions and relationships.
