INTRODUCTION AND SECTION I OVERVIEW
(CHAPTERS 1, 2, & 3)
INTRODUCTION: RACIAL FORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES
(pp. 1-18)
Question to Consider:
- Are race and racism dead topics in the 21st century America?
- How did social scientists view race and racism until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s?
- What do Omi and Winant suggest as the premise of this book?
Key Concepts
- Biologistic perspective (p. 5)
- Evolutionary Theory (p. 5)
- Post-Racial Society (p. 1)
- Racial theory (p. 3)
- Race Relations Cycle (p. 6)
- Social Darwinism (p. 5)
- Trajectory of racial politics (p. 7)
CHAPTER 2: CLASS
(pp. 53-74)
Questions to Consider:
- How do social scientists use class to explain and obscure the discussion of race?
- What are the three general approaches to the class-based arguments of race?
What are the problems associated with using social class as a proxy for race-based issues in the United States?
- How does class arguments help to explain the race paradigm in America?
Key Concepts and People:
- Market relations approach (p. 54)
- Irrational prejudice model (p. 55)
- Monopolistic practices model (p. 55)
- Race tax (p. 56)
- Disruptive state interventionism (p. 56)
- Market exchange theories or race (p. 57)
- Stratification theory (p. 58)
- William J. Wilson (p. 59)
- Black underclass (p. 59, 60)
- Anti-welfarism (p. 60)
- White flight (p. 59)
- Declining Significance of Race (p. 60)
- Culture of poverty (p. 61)
- Douglas S. Massey (p. 62)
- Dissimilarity Indices (p. 62)
- Implicit bias (p. 63)
- Class conflict theory (p. 65)
- Labor market segmentation (p. 66)
- Split labor market theory (p. 66)
- Economic determinism (p. 67)
CHAPTER 3: NATION
(pp. 75-102)
Questions to Consider:
- How do social scientists use a nation-based paradigm to explain race and racism in America?
- What are the issues associated with using a nation-based paradigm to define race in the U.S.?
- What do Omi and Winant take away from this paradigm to begin constructing their theoretical argument about race?
Key Concepts and People:
-
Nation-building (p. 75)
- Race/class/gender intersections (p. 79)
-
White nation (pp. 75-79)
- Anti-imperialism (pp. 75, 81)
-
Oppositional nationalism (p. 76)
- Anglo-conformity (p.77)
-
Peoplehood (p. 78)
- WASP nation (p. 79)
-
Insurgent nationalism (pp. 81, 82)
- Black power (p. 81)
-
Black nationalism (pp. 81-82)
- Race riots (ghetto rebellions) (p. 82)
-
Pan-Africanism (pp. 83-86)
- Cultural nationalism (pp. 86-89)
-
The “nation question” (pp. 89-91)
- Internal colonialism (pp. 91-94)
-
Marcus Garvey (p. 84)
- Universal Negro Improvement Association (p. 84)
-
Malcolm X (p. 82)
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (p. 81)
-
Harlem Renaissance (p. 86)
- Harold Cruse (p. 86)
-
Anti-racist movements (p. 87)
- Countercultural institutions (p. 89)
-
Superexploitation (p. 92)
- Robert Blauner (p. 92)
SECTION II OVERVIEW
(CHAPTERS 4 & 5)
CHAPTER 4: THE THEORY OF RACIAL FORMATION
(pp. 105-136)
Questions to Consider:
- What is race?
- How is race socially constructed?
- How has the consciousness about race evolved over time in the United States?
- What is the racial formation theory and how does it explain race and racism in the U.S.?
- How does racial formation theory differ from other paradigms attempting to explain race and racism in the U.S.?
- What are racial projects and what are some examples?
- What is racism?
- How do Omi and Winant see the interplay between race, racism, and politics in the U.S.?
Key Concepts and People:
-
Social construction of race (pp. 106-109)
- Race (p. 110)
-
Racial formation (p. 109)
- Racism (pp. 128-130)
-
Mixed-race identity (p. 109)
- Racialization (p. 111)
-
Scientific racism (pp. 115, 117)
- Linnaeus (p. 115)
-
Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (p. 116)
- Francis Galton (p. 116)
-
Social Darwinism (p. 116)
- Eugenics movement (p. 116)
-
W.E.B. Du Bois (p. 117)
- Neil Risch (p. 117)
-
Racial politics (p. 121)
- Loving v. Virginia (p. 121)
-
U.S. Census (pp. 121-122)
- Multiracial identity (p. 123)
-
One-drop rule (p. 123)
- Racial projects (p. 125)
-
Magnus Hirschfeld (p. 127)
- Anti-racist projects (p. 129)
-
Racial despotism (p. 130)
- Racial resistance (p. 131)
-
Racial democracy (p. 132)
- Colorblindness (p. 133)
CHAPTER 5: RACIAL POLITICS AND THE RACIAL STATE
(Pp. 137-158)
Questions to Consider:
- How does race impact politics and vice versa?
- How does racial formation theory explain the interaction between race and politics?
- What distinguishes “a war of maneuver” from “a war of position?”
- What is the notion of the “racial body politic?”
- What is the “radical pragmatist approach” to understand race in the United States?
- What are the “trajectories” of racial politics in the U.S.?
- What is the “politicization of the social?”
- What is the “Great Transformation?”
Key Concepts and People:
-
Despotism (p. 139)
- Democratic dimensions of the racial state (p. 139)
-
War of maneuver (p. 142)
- War of position (p. 142)
-
Antonio Gramsci (p. 140-142)
- Counter-hegemony (p. 143)
-
Michel Foucault (p. 144)
- Biopower (p. 144)
-
Scapegoat theories of race (p. 144)
- Racial body politic (p. 145)
-
Self-reflective action (p. 146)
- Radical Pragmatist Approach (p. 146)
-
Insurgent groups of color (p. 146)
- Trajectories of racial politics (pp. 124, 148)
-
Unstable equilibrium (p. 148)
- Racial hegemony (p. 149)
- Rearticulation (pp. 143, 151)
-
The Great Transformation (p. 151)