1 It is not, and never has been, true that the Hyaenidae is a family distinguished by scavenging. 2  Of the four species alive today-the Aardwolf and the Spotted, Striped and Brown Hyaenas-only the latter two are full-time scavengers.
In other words, the legal construction of white and non-white in U.S. history is one engine that drives the way that the past continues to shape the present. Whiteness has been made to appear natural, that is, as objective scientific fact, in U.S. cultural and legal history.
Sociologists generally accept that reality is different for each individual. The term social construction of reality refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life experiences. How we were raised and what we were raised to believe affect how we present ourselves, how we perceive others, and how others perceive us.