Race and Racialization

Summary

Race is a product of racism, not of biology. The process of racialization illustrates how racial categories are constructed and how they are reinforced, contested, and inhabited by individuals, groups, institutions, and states. Because racialization illustrates the social construction process, the framework challenges biological determinism as well as popular or mainstream conceptions of race and racism. The racialization framework criticizes the scientific use of race as a variable with fixed categories, which reifies race as immutable. In addition, the framework critiques the assimilationist paradigm in migration research, as scholars of racism argue that U.S. (im)migration politics have always involved racial politics. The framework expanded in response to migration scholars who encouraged race scholarship to think beyond Black and White racial dynamics, as changing migration patterns post-1965 resulted in increased racial diversity throughout the United States, most notably in places far from traditional gateways. In the post-civil rights era, the racialization framework expanded in response to neoconservative arguments that racism has declined in significance, demonstrating the flexibility and fluidity of racism and racial boundaries.