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Overview I

Overview II

Overview III

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)                

 

 

SECTION III AND CONCLUSIONS OVERVIEW

(CHAPTERS 6, 7, & 8)

CHAPTER 6: THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION

(pp. 161-184)

Questions to Consider:

  • What is important about the “The Great Transformation” and its impact on race and racism in the United States?
  • What is “black power” and how did it shape the black movement in the 1950s and 1960s?
  • How does the “racial reaction” from the state and white society fragment black movement efforts?
  • What were the three broad divisions among the minority movements of the 1960s?
  • Did the challenges brought on by the civil rights movement change the racial state?

Key Concepts and People:

  • Great Transformation (p. 161)                                               
  • Paradigm shift (pp. 161-162)
  • New social movements (pp. 162-163)                                   
  • Jim-Crow racism (p. 162)
  • Rearticulation of black collective subjectivity (p. 164)         
  • Rearticulation (p. 165)
  • Sit-ins (p. 166)                                                                       
  • Black power (p. 167)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 167)                                             
  • March on Washington, 1963 (p. 168) Congress of Racial Equality (p. 168)                                            
  • Booker T. Washington (p. 169)
  • Marcus Garvey (p. 169)                                                         
  • Malcolm X (pp. 169-170)
  • Radical black nationalism (p. 170)                                         
  • Nation of Islam (p. 170)        
  • Self-determinism (p. 170)                                                      
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 (p. 173)
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965 (p. 173)                                      
  • Great Society (p. 173)
  • Electoral/institutional Entrism (p. 175)                                  
  • Socialism (p. 176)
  • Nationalism (p. 177)

CHAPTER 7: RACIAL REACTION: CONTAINMENT AND RE-ARTICULATION

(pp. 185-210)

Questions to Consider:

  • How did the United States react to racial minority movements for inclusion and the democratization of the American racial state?
  • How did the “racial reaction” to the civil rights era rearticulate the movement’s identities and ideals to contain and continue the racial status quo in the U.S.?
  • What were the various reactionary racial projects and how would they change American views of race and racism after the 1960s?

Key Concepts and People:

  • Politicization of the social (p. 185)                            
  • Identity politics (politics of identity) (p. 186) Racial reaction (p. 186)                                        
  • “War on Poverty” (p. 188)     
  • “Model Cities” (p. 188)                                             
  • “Head Start” (p. 188)
  • E. Franklin Frazier (p. 188)                                        
  • FBI COINTELPRO (p. 189)
  • Reactionary racial projects (p. 190)                           
  • The new right (p. 191)                       
  • Richard Nixon (p.191-192, 196, 203-204)                
  • George Wallace (p. 191-193) 
  • NCPAC (p. 192)                                                        
  • The Conservative Caucus (p. 192)
  • Heritage Foundation  (p. 192)                                               
  • Code words (p. 192)                          
  • Negrophobia (p. 194)                                                 
  • Traditional morality (p. 194)
  • “real Americans” (p. 195)                                          
  • Counterculture (p. 196)                                  
  • White resentment (p. 196)                                         
  • Neoconservatism (p. 198)                              
  • Nathan Glazer (p. 199)                                              
  • Market-based opportunity (p. 199)    
  • Excessive state interventionism (p. 199)                    
  • Affirmative action (p. 199)                
  • Reverse discrimination (p. 200)                                 
  • Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (p. 203)
  • Swann V. Charlotte-Mecklenburg BOE (p.203)        
  • Regents of UC v. Bakke (p. 203)
  • Reverse racism (p. 204)                      

CHAPTER 8: COLORBLINDNESS, NEOLIBERALISM, AND OBAMA

(pp. 211-245)

Questions to Consider:

  • What is the “neoliberal” agenda in defining race and racism in the United States?
  • What are colorblind politics?
  • What is the genealogy of colorblind politics?
  • How do Omi and Winant characterize U.S. politics and the various racial projects support a colorblind ideology from Reagan to Obama?
  • How do Omi and Winant characterize Barack Obama’s role in colorblind ideology?
  • How do Omi and Winant characterize the rise of the Tea Party and their contributions to racial politics in the U.S.?

Key Concepts and People:

  • Politics of resentment (p. 211)                                   
  • Neoliberalism (pp. 212-213)
  • Lewis F. Powell (p. 213)                                            
  • Corporate elite (p. 213)
  • Anti-welfare statism (p. 214)                                     
  • Ronald Reagan (pp. 214-215, 221-223)
  • Tax revolt (p. 215)                                                     
  • Producerism (p. 215)
  • Discipline and punish  (p. 216)                                   
  • Depoliticization of the social (p. 216)
  • Code words (p. 218)                                                  
  • Reverse racism (p. 218-219)
  • Race-neutral matter (p. 219)                                      
  • Zero-sum game (p. 219)
  • Racial quotas (pp. 219-220)                                       
  • Colorblind ideology (p. 220 but throughout)
  • George H.W. Bush (p. 222)                                       
  • Bill Clinton (p. 222-225)
  • AFDC v. TANF welfare programs (p. 223)              
  • Earned Income Tax Credit (p. 224)
  • NAFTA (p. 224)                                                        
  • George W. Bush (p. 225-228)
  • Racial realism  (p. 225)                                               
  • Hurricane Katrina (p. 226)
  • Urban privatization and adjustment (p. 226)             
  • 9/11 (p. 226-227)
  • Islamophobia (p. 226-227)                                         
  • Subprime mortgage crisis (p. 227)
  • Steering campaigns (p. 227-228)                               
  • Gerrymandering
  • Barack Obama            (p. 228-232)                                      
  • Kill list (p. 229)
  • Racial neoliberalism (p. 230                                       
  • Market rationality (p. 230)
  • Great Recession (p. 230)                                            
  • Trayvon Martin (p. 232)
  • Deportation regime (p. 232)                                       
  • Path to citizenship (p. 232)
  • Ex-felon disenfranchisement (p. 232)                        
  • Underclass (p. 233)
  • Tea Party (p. 234)                                                      
  • State’s rights (p. 234)
  • Birthers (p. 234)                                                         
  • Demographic shifts (p. 236-237)
  • Immigration dynamics (p. 237)

CONCLUSION: THE CONTRARIETIES OF RACE

(pp. 245-269)

Questions to Consider:

  • What is Omi and Winant’s views of the impact of race on the U.S.’s past and present?
  • How do Omi and Winant define and use the notion of race and racism in explaining American systems, particularly politics?
  • What are the three paradigms reviewed by Omi and Winant and what are their flaws in explaining race and racism in the U.S.?
  • How do Omi and Winant characterize and explain the trajectories of racial politics in the U.S.?
  • How do Omi and Winant describe the rise of race consciousness as a racial project?
  • What is racial re-articulation and can it happen again?
  • What racial justice-oriented social policies do they suggest to address race and racism in the U.S.?

Key Concepts and People:

  • Master category of oppression and resistance (p. 245)          
  • Racialization (p. 247) Intersectionality (p. 248)                                                        
  • Corporeality (p. 248)
  • Ethnicity theory (p. 250)                                                        
  • Class-based theory (pp. 250-251)
  • Nation-based theories (p. 251-252)                                       
  • Hegemony (p. 254)
  • Colorblindness (p. 256)                                                          
  • Re-articulation (p. 255)
  • Hegemony of colorblindness (pp. 256-260)                          
  • Race-consciousness (p. 260)  
  • Redistribution (p. 265)                                                           
  • Social citizenship (p. 265-257)
  • The personal is political (p. 266)