First developed in 1986 by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, racial formation is a “process of historically situated projects in which human bodies and social structures are represented and organized” (Omi and Winant 21). Looking back, one can observe this system in effect numerous times in history all over the world as the human bodies today are all organized and represented in a specific rank in the hierarchy of society, whether it be race, class, gender, or all three. Every single racial category existent today has gone through this sociohistorical process, namely the African Americans who historically, have been the subject of the system of racial formation. In the early 20th century, the treatment of blacks in the United States
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Omi and Winant argue that projects can be considered racist “if and only if it creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race” (Omi and Winant 33). Because the dominant ideology of white supremacy was essentially hegemonic in the deep South, many structures of domination were created in which the blacks were routinely kept at the bottom by the racial category that claimed the superior position: the white people. For example, blacks were forced to become sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the south (Takaki 312) in the harsh racial apartheid they were in. Blacks were racialized by the highest group in the social hierarchy, the white people, by getting inserted into the very bottom of the racial formation in the South. Because of their rank in the hierarchy, blacks evolved from being slaves to their owners to becoming tenants to their owners, a system only a couple steps away from …show more content…
The harsh racial and class formations in the South pushed blacks toward the North where “tremendous labor shortages” and “privilege” (Takaki 313) awaited them. Blacks were finally able to go to the same school as whites, voting was not an ordeal, and they were making much more money than they ever did before (Takaki 314). From just a simple train ride to the North, the racial formation dramatically changed for the blacks, indicating that the social structures and racial categories created by racial formations are indeed fluid and mutable and are not based on fact but instead are based on the dominant ideologies present in the
Omi and Winant argue that projects can be considered racist “if and only if it creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race” (Omi and Winant 33). Because the dominant ideology of white supremacy was essentially hegemonic in the deep South, many structures of domination were created in which the blacks were routinely kept at the bottom by the racial category that claimed the superior position: the white people. For example, blacks were forced to become sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the south (Takaki 312) in the harsh racial apartheid they were in. Blacks were racialized by the highest group in the social hierarchy, the white people, by getting inserted into the very bottom of the racial formation in the South. Because of their rank in the hierarchy, blacks evolved from being slaves to their owners to becoming tenants to their owners, a system only a couple steps away from …show more content…
The harsh racial and class formations in the South pushed blacks toward the North where “tremendous labor shortages” and “privilege” (Takaki 313) awaited them. Blacks were finally able to go to the same school as whites, voting was not an ordeal, and they were making much more money than they ever did before (Takaki 314). From just a simple train ride to the North, the racial formation dramatically changed for the blacks, indicating that the social structures and racial categories created by racial formations are indeed fluid and mutable and are not based on fact but instead are based on the dominant ideologies present in the