RACE AS A SOCIAL

AND HISTORICAL
CONSTRUCTION

Based on Racial
Formations in the United
States by Michael Omi
and Howard Winant

SUSIE GUILLORY PHIPPS

African American woman who challenged legal status as black
Louisiana law defined anyone with 1/32nd Negro blood to be
black

TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF RACE AND

SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Race is defined by blood or phenotype (appearance) and has a pure
essence that defines a persons social, cultural, and psychological
makeup.
Definitions of races are located in:
Science
Religion
Political and legal codes

RACE AS A MODERN
PHENOMENON

At first contact, culture was

key to difference.
But, Native Americans raised
scientific and religious
problems for Europeans

LABOR AND RACE IN THE 17 TH

CENTURY
In 17th Century, European and African indentured servants formed a
pool of labor
Bacons Rebellion demonstrated dangers inherent in a unified
proletariat
Led by Nathaniel Bacon, an army of frontiersman, poor laborers, and struggling
farmers fought against landed gentry in Virginia

RACE AND DISUNIFICATION OF

LABOR
During and after Bacons Rebellion, new laws enacted to create and
police boundaries and divide the working class against itself
Limit social and sexual contact across racial boundaries
Prevent African and Native Americans from political citizenship

White Landed
Gentry
Indentured
Servants

White Landed
Gentry
African
Indentured
Servants

European
Indentured
Servants

White Landed
Gentry
Free White
Men
People of
Color

CREATION OF WHITE
PRIVILEGE
Whiteness became a wage paid to white workers to prevent cross
racial labor identity
Whiteness ensures higher social status than people of color
Psychological wage of whiteness
At least Im not one of them

We Presume
the US is a
land of Social
Mobility

White Landed
Gentry
Free White
Men
Free People
of Color

Remember, slaves
could be freed, but free
people were often
captured and enslaved

Slaves

BASES FOR RACE AS FIXED

CATEGORY
18th and 19th Century
Attempts to quantifiably and scientifically demonstrate racial difference

Hypo-Descent
Whiteness is pure
Any amount of non-European heritage makes a person non-white

PHIPPS AND
HYPO-DESCENT
Susan Guillory Phipps was
defined as African-American
because she was 1/32nd Black.
This means One of her 32 GreatGreat-Great-Great Grandparents
was Black.
Here is a SUPER simplistic
drawing of her 32 great-greatgreat-great grandparents:

RACIAL FORMATION:
The meaning of race is defined and contested throughout society,
in both collective action and personal practice. In the process,
racial categories themselves are formed, transformed, destroyed
and re-formed. We use the term racial formation to refer to the
process by which social, economic, and political forces determine
the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they
are in turn shaped by racial meanings.

RACIALIZATION
The extension of racial meaning to a previously racially
unclassified relationship, social practice or group.
An ideological process, an historically specific one.

RACE AND INDIVIDUAL

IDENTITY
At the micro-level, race is a matter of individuality, of the
formation of identity. The ways in which we understand ourselves
and interact with others, the structuring of our practical activityin
work and family, as citizens and as thinkers (or philosophers)
these are all shaped by racial meanings and racial awareness.

RACE AND COMMUNAL

IDENTITY
At the macro-level, race is a matter of collectivity, of the formation
of social structures: economic, political and cultural/ideological.
The racial order is organized and enforced by the continuity and
reciprocity between these two levels of social relations. The
micro- and macro-levels, however, are only analytically distinct. In
our lived experience, in politics, in culture, in economic life, they
are continuous and reciprocal.

RACE AS A SYSTEM OF
CODES
We utilize race to provide clues about who we expect a person to
be
These clues influence social interactions
Reinforced through:
Media
Cultural and Political Discourse
Academic Discourse

Perpetuates notion of inherent nature

These clues have a deep impact on the people and peoples they
describe.

HOW DO RACIAL
ASSUMPTIONS
INFLUENCE IDENTITY?

WHERE DO WE SEE
THESE STEREOTYPES?

WHAT WOULD BE THE

EXPERIENCE OF FACING
THESE EXPECTATIONS?