Howard Winant Racial Formation Summary

The racial formation theory was developed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, thus publishing the book “Racial Formation”. Omi and Winant describe racial formation as “the socio historical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed”. They argue this theory in two steps; the first being the projects and secondly the evolution of hegemony. In the reading, it points out the fact that race and politics go hand and hand, they suggest revoking any piece of legislation and undo any court decision that involves or awards treatment based on race. In order for this to happen, one must understand the meaning of race. Race can be seen as a social structure, where in the past and present people are being treated differently based on their race and color of their skin.
In politics, we have the right and left side of the spectrum; the far right project referring to republicans and white supremacy. Whereas on the left, we have the democrat project and egalitarian policies. In our minds we have a set idea of what each race should look like, so when we come across someone who does not fit our picture, we begin to wonder. Oh she/he might be mixed, or lying about their race. Race is the first thing we associate other people with, we use their race to determine many factors such as wealth, intelligence, and so on. We adapted and associated these characteristics with race. Also in the reading, it mentions how racial differences have traveled from religion to science, and science to politics. Racial dictatorship created the color line, thus establishing division in our world. The racial formation theory enables us to see the difference in racism and