Racial Formation in the United States

Citation

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2014). Racial Formation in the United States (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The third edition runs to 344 pages and is organised as an introduction, eight chapters in three parts, and a conclusion. The publisher states that every chapter was radically revised and rewritten for this edition, while the purpose of the book stays the same: to account for how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape identities and institutions.

Introduction: Racial Formation in the United States

The opening introduces the book's subject, racial formation in the United States, and leads into the three parts that follow.

Part I, Chapters 1–3: Ethnicity; Class; Nation

The first part examines three paradigms that have been used to explain race. Each chapter takes one of them in turn: ethnicity, class and nation. Together they supply the background against which the authors' own approach is defined: three established ways of thinking about race, each tied to a different category.

Part II, Chapters 4–5: The Theory of Racial Formation; Racial Politics and the Racial State

Chapter 4 presents the theory itself. Chapter 5 extends it to politics and the state, treating race as something contested within political institutions and not only within culture or the economy. These two chapters are the conceptual core of the book.

Part III, Chapters 6–8: The Great Transformation; Racial Reaction: Containment and Rearticulation; Colorblindness, Neoliberalism, and Obama

The final part applies the theory to racial politics since the Second World War. Chapter 6 deals with the post-war transformation of racial politics, Chapter 7 with the reaction against it, described through the paired ideas of containment and rearticulation, and Chapter 8 with colour-blind ideology, neoliberalism and the election of Barack Obama. The publisher's description lists the other developments the edition now covers: the move toward a majority nonwhite population, the weakening of the political legacy of the civil rights movement, the "war on terror" and Islamophobia, the immigrants' rights movement and intersectionality theory.

Conclusion: The Contrarieties of Race

The book closes by drawing the argument together under the heading "The Contrarieties of Race".

Key Concepts

Introduction and Part I: Paradigms of Race

• Racial formation: the process by which racial categories are created, lived, transformed and destroyed; the book's central term.
• Ethnicity, class and nation paradigms: the three frames through which race has been explained, one per chapter of Part I.

Part II: Racial Formation

• The theory of racial formation: the account, developed in Chapter 4, of how racial categories arise, change and become political.
• The racial state: the concept, tied to Chapter 5's discussion of racial politics, of the state as a site where race is made and contested.

Part III: Racial Politics Since World War II

• Containment and rearticulation: the two terms in the title of Chapter 7, which deals with racial reaction.
• Colorblindness and neoliberalism: the two themes paired in the title of Chapter 8.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A general theory rather than a survey. The book's structure moves from criticising three rival paradigms to stating a theory and then testing it on a long stretch of American history, so the concepts come with their historical application. George Lipsitz describes the revision as foregrounding race as a "master category" and giving new weight to social movements.
• Currency of the third edition. The publisher highlights recent conditions the edition takes up, from the "war on terror" to intersectionality. Angela Harris, quoted on the Routledge page, praises its engagement with writing on neoliberalism, the body and intersectionality while keeping a "jargon-free, accessible" style.
• Recognised standing. Troy Duster, Lani Guinier and Tomas Almaguer, also quoted by the publisher, treat it as an enduring contribution to the theory of stratification and as a work that has shaped many fields.

Limitations

• United States focus. The title and the part on post-war politics tie the argument to American history; readers interested in other settings must test the concepts elsewhere.
• Argument rather than data. The contents show a conceptual and historical work in three parts, not a report of studies or a review of research findings; readers wanting statistical evidence on racial inequality need other sources.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is one of several books listed for a course on race and ethnicity. Race and Ethnicity: The Basics and Racism: A Very Short Introduction are compact starting points on how sociologists define and study these terms, and Racisms: An Introduction is an undergraduate textbook that works through forms of racism with case studies from many countries. Omi and Winant make sense after one of these.

Elliott-Cooper's study of Black resistance to British policing and Bhattacharyya and colleagues' Empire's Endgame analyse racism and the British state through specific cases. Omi and Winant offer a general theory built from United States history; read it when you want concepts that travel across cases, and compare how each book links race to state power. Social Stratification, the large reader on inequality, includes a selection titled after this book, which is a way to meet the argument in miniature.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in sociology, ethnic studies and political science, though Harris describes it as an ideal text for undergraduate courses on race, ethnicity, history and political theory. An introductory course on race and ethnicity, plus some American history, is enough preparation.

Read the Introduction first, then Chapters 4 and 5, which hold the theory, and return to Chapters 1–3 to see what the theory is arguing against. Chapters 6–8 can be read in order as a historical argument, or selectively as support for a paper on the civil rights era, the backlash against it or colour-blind ideology. Read the Conclusion last.

Useful practice while reading: pick a current policy dispute and describe it in terms of racial formation and the racial state, then say what the ethnicity, class and nation paradigms would have said instead.