Three Epiphenomena

The last of the three epiphenomena of race Omi and Winant use to describe their definition of race is class. The concept of class goes back to the teachings of Karl Marx. Karl Marx explains in his theory of primitive accumulation that the system is set up so that the people who are considered to be white are able to achieve more in society because “racism is a product of capitalism” (Taylor,2011). Americans especially, use what are called social categories. These categories are used in everyday use without any notice. Americans put certain races in these social categories and define them as class. An example of this is a white men will out earn a black man in weekly wages, but a black man will out earn a Hispanic when the Hispanic man has the
When black families had enough money to move into these towns to better off their families, the surrounding white families picked up and move decreasing the value of the home these families just bought. This is called the white flight. During this time it was hard for those of colored bodies to even technically own their own home " From the 1930s through the 1960s, black people across the country were largely cut out of the legitimate home-mortgage market through means both legal and extralegal” (Coates 2015). The white flight still exists today. “Today's cities may be more diverse overall, but people of different races still don’t live near each other”(Semuels 2015). Hypodescent is something that is also still practiced in United States. Unlike the United States where hypodescent, which is the automatic assignment to the race of usually lower status, is practice; Brazil and many other countries do not practice this. Brazil categorizes one by features one might have such as the texture of their hair and eye color. There are many categories one could be placed in in Brazil compared to the United
The ethnicity of a person is shown by where a person is from and their culture and their language. A person that is called “black” does not show how a person has ethnicity but if a person had parents from a country in Africa and was born in the same country in Africa and learned about the culture and language that makes a person ethnic. When people say a person is generally white or black it does not show their ethnicity. It shows lack of understanding of where a person is actually from and if they know their ethnicity or not. The second epiphenomena of race that Omi and Winant stated is nation. The nation shows how people who are not together in the world actually come together to become a nation. People do this to try and come together with common elements of culture, language or history to inhabit a territory or country. Although these people come together, it does not mean that they agree on these same views. The last epiphenomena of race that Omi and Winant stated is Class. Class is important because from Karl Marx’s idea on class to now, class is still in the world today. In America, there are different classes such as Upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class and lower class. Depending on what job a person has and sometimes what nationality a person is, it categorizes them into the class system. The system is set up so that the people that