Race, Racism & Racialization

1. Race, Racism & Racialization The Bigger Picture

2. Race • Historical origins linked to 15th century Spanish Inquisition • blood purity + religion ideology = origins of racialization • Biological roots of defining race persists to present day • 1735 – Carl Linnaeus’ classification of Homo Sapiens • Europeans • American Indians • Asians • Africans • “Monstrous” races (later proved to be nonexistent)

3. Race and the Making of U.S. Democracy “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” --Preamble to U.S. Constitution

4. Race and U.S. Society • Race in early U.S. political/legal/economic matters was used justify the Constitution for white land-owning males only (Snipp 23). • Article I, Section 2: “Representative and direct Taxes….shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of Free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons…. The actual Enumeration shall be made…within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

5. Racial Formation Theory • “The process in which race operates as a central axis of social relations, which then determine social, economic, and political institutions and practices” (Omi & Winant 19). Racial categories are “formed, transformed, destroyed and reformed” in both individual practices & collective actions.

6. Racialization • Racialization – “The social process by which a racial identity is attached to a group and that group is placed in a race-based social hierarchy” (Omi & Winant, 21). • Dehumanizes and subjugates a group of people to subordinate positionalities rooted. • E.g. – “Indians” and Europeans • E.g. – “Blacks” and Euro-Americans • E.g. – “Hispanics” and U.S. white Americans • E.g. – “Asians” and U.S. white Americans • E.g. – “Orientals” and Euro-Americans

7. Race as a Social Concept • Superordinate V. Subordinate • Inclusion and Exclusion • Passing V. Not-passing • Looking “Black” or Looking “Asian” • Social Performativity • Acting “Indian” or Acting “Mexican” • Racial Etiquette –a set of interpretative codes and racial meanings which operate in the interactions of daily life

8. Racialized Social Systems • “The idea that society is organized along racial lines and that economic, political, social, and even psychological rewards differ according to one’s placement in a racial hierarchy. Once established, the system of racial hierarchy takes on a life of its own” (Bonilla-Silva, 32). • This concepts views Race and Racism not as Individual Ideas/Practices, but as the expected result of a social structure rooted in racial hierarchy. • Racism then is a normal outcome within a racialized social system.

9. U.S. Racialization • Racial hierarchy • Historically, racial categories have been constructed thru highly political acts associated with: • Conquest and colonization; enslavement; indentured servitude; colonial and neocolonial labor immigration (34) • Race became independent element to the operation of the social system • Occurs alongside other social formations/systems structured by Class and Gender and Sexuality • E.g. Poor Black Feminist Lesbian Female vs. a Rich White Hetero Male

10. Race is Always in Relation to… • Whiteness. • Think, Pair, Share: Why might this be? • Our Challenge lies in NOT viewing and understanding race as “an essence” • OR • Race as a fixed, concrete, objective reality • OR • Race as a “mere illusion” either that doesn’t really exist…. • Race is an unstable and decentered complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle (individually and collectively). [Omi & Winant 22]

11. Re-cap Discussion • How is the U.S. characterized by racialized social systems today? • How does race transcend individualistic opinions? • How does these theories explain common labor practices that racialized actors/singers undergo/face/endure in search of acting/singing gigs?