Racial Formation

These two opposing paradigms of what constitutes ôraceö speak to the question of how racial formation occurs. Omi and Winant (1994, p. 55) defined racial formation ôas the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.ö They argued that racial formation is a process of historically situated projects in which human bodies and social structure are both represented and organized. Hegemony comes into play when a particular group achieves dominance within a culture or society and then posits race as consisting of essential physiological characteristics. Next, these mainstream elites or hegemons instrumentally make race a vital (even primary) element in determining privilege, prestige, power relationships, and stereotypes.

Consider, for example, the case of Thomas JeffersonÆs descendants, the children he

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ul, and quite wealthy athlete. This essay has attempted to differentiate between the essentialist and instrumentalist articulations of race. More than anything else, it demonstrates the persistence of race as a subject and as a construct within American society. Race does signify and symbolize social conflicts. It posits the existence of ôthemö and ôus,ö with ôthemö as an inferior ôother.ö Emphasizing race polarizes, divides, and engenders tensions within society. References Lennon, Thomas. (1999). JeffersonÆs Blood. PBS Television Film. Nakashima, D. (2001). A rose by any other name: Names, multiracial/multiethnic people, and the politics of identity. In T. Williams-Leon & C.L. Nakashima (Eds.). The Sum of Our Parts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 112-119. Omi, M. & Winant, H. (1994). Racial Formation in the U.S.: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge. Tashiro, C.J. (2001). Mixed but not matched: Multiracial people and the organization of health knowledge. In T. Williams-Leon & C.L. Nakashima (Eds.). The Sum of Our Parts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 173-182. Williams-Leon, T. (2001). The convergence of passing zones: Mult
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Approximate Word count = 2606
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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