What are the important claims in the Omi and Winant article "Racial Formation?"
What does it mean to be “one-thirty second black”?
Do you think one-thirty second black should mean someone is considered black? If so, why? If not, why not, and what should be the demarcation for being considered black?
What does polygenesis mean? What are the ways Europeans would treat people differently based on idea of polygenesis – list at least 3.
What does “hypo-descent” mean?
What does “passing” mean?
The book by Omi and Winant called "Racial Formation" provides a detailed explanation of how race is formed through a social construction. Here is a video of Omi and Winant explaining their seminal work:
If "race" is not biological then it is a social construction. There is no way to separate humans biologically, physically or scientifically into distinct racial groups. If there was, then racial groups would be the same all over the world. They would fit into the scientific classification system such as kingdom, order, phylum etc... But instead, each culture has its own racial types. The system of classification in each country is based on the country's social, cultural and political history. In sum,
- Racial categories vary around the world.
- The categories are formed in each country because of the local social, cultural and political history.
How does Omi and Winant provide evidence for these claims?
If race varies around the world based on the social, cultural and political histories of each country, what are some examples?
Race in Japan
For example, when I was in Japan, I asked some Japanese friends what races were in Japan and they said "nihon-jin and gai-jin," Which means "Japanese people and foreign people. In other words, the Japanese think that there are Japanese people in the world and then there is everyone else. And then I pressed him further and I said, " But aren't there different groups within Japanese culture?"
Race in Mexico
Here are the racial groups in Mexico:
- Mestizo: Spanish father and Indian mother
- Castizo: Spanish father and Mestizo mother
- Espomolo: Spanish mother and Castizo father
- Mulatto: Spanish and black African
- Moor: Spanish and Mulatto
- Albino: Spanish father and Moor mother
- Throwback: Spanish father and Albino mother
- Wolf: Throwback father and Indian mother
- Zambiago: Wolf father and Indian mother
- Cambujo: Zambiago father and Indian mother
- Alvarazado: Cambujo father and Mulatto mother
- Borquino: Alvarazado father and Mulatto mother
- Coyote: Borquino father and Mulatto mother
- Chamizo: Coyote father and Mulatto mother
- Coyote-Mestizo: Cahmizo father and Mestizo mother
- Ahi Tan Estas: Coyote-Mestizo father and Mulatto mother
Race in Brazil
In Brazil, although the Brazilian census defines the races as:
branco (white), pardo (multiracial), preto (black), amarelos (Asians), caboclos (indigenous and white mixed), indigenous
However, Brazilians are far more conscious of physical variations. For example, in 1976, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) conducted a study to ask people to identify their own skin color. Here are the 134 terms, listed in alphabetical order:
Agalegada
Alva (pure white)
Alva-escura (dark or off-white)
Alverenta (or aliviero, "shadow in the water")
Alvarinta (tinted or bleached white)
Alva-rosada (or jamote, roseate, white with pink highlights)
Alvinha (bleached; white-washed)
Amarela (yellow)
Amarelada (yellowish)
Amarela-quemada (burnt yellow or ochre)
Amarelosa (yellowed)
Amorenada (tannish)
Avermelhada (reddish, with blood vessels showing through the skin)
Azul (bluish)
Azul-marinho (deep bluish)
Baiano (ebony)
Bem-branca (very white)
Bem-clara (translucent)
Bem-morena (very dusky)
Branca (white)
Branca-avermelhada (peach white)
Branca-melada (honey toned)
Branca-morena (darkish white)
Branca-p�lida (pallid)
Branca-queimada (sunburned white)
Branca-sardenta (white with brown spots)
Branca-suja (dirty white)
Branqui�a (a white variation)
Branquinha (whitish)
Bronze (bronze)
Bronzeada (bronzed tan)
Bugrezinha-escura (Indian characteristics)
Burro-quanto-foge ("burro running away," implying racial mixture of unknown origin)
Cabocla (mixture of white, Negro and Indian)
Cabo-Verde (black; Cape Verdean)
Caf� (coffee)
Caf�-com-leite (coffee with milk)
Canela (cinnamon)
Canelada (tawny)
Cast�o (thistle colored)
Castanha (cashew)
Castanha-clara (clear, cashewlike)
Castanha-escura (dark, cashewlike)
Chocolate (chocolate brown)
Clara (light)
Clarinha (very light)
Cobre (copper hued)
Corado (ruddy)
Cor-de-caf� (tint of coffee)
Cor-de-canela (tint of cinnamon)
Cor-de-cuia (tea colored)
Cor-de-leite (milky)
Cor-de-oro (golden)
Cor-de-rosa (pink)
Cor-firma ("no doubt about it")
Crioula (little servant or slave; African)
Encerada (waxy)
Enxofrada (pallid yellow; jaundiced)
Esbranquecimento (mostly white)
Escura (dark)
Escurinha (semidark)
Fogoio (florid; flushed)
Galega (see agalegada above)
Galegada (see agalegada above)
Jambo (like a fruit the deep-red color of a blood orange)
Laranja (orange)
Lil�s (lily)
Loira (blond hair and white skin)
Loira-clara (pale blond)
Loura (blond)
Lourinha (flaxen)
Malaia (from Malabar)
Marinheira (dark greyish)
Marrom (brown)
Meio-amerela (mid-yellow)
Meio-branca (mid-white)
Meio-morena (mid-tan)
Meio-preta (mid-Negro)
Melada (honey colored)
Mesti�a (mixture of white and Indian)
Miscigena��o (mixed --- literally "miscegenated")
Mista (mixed)
Morena (tan)
Morena-bem-chegada (very tan)
Morena-bronzeada (bronzed tan)
Morena-canelada (cinnamonlike brunette)
Morena-castanha (cashewlike tan)
Morena clara (light tan)
Morena-cor-de-canela (cinnamon-hued brunette)
Morena-jambo (dark red)
Morenada (mocha)
Morena-escura (dark tan)
Morena-fechada (very dark, almost mulatta)
Moren�o (very dusky tan)
Morena-parda (brown-hued tan)
Morena-roxa (purplish-tan)
Morena-ruiva (reddish-tan)
Morena-trigueira (wheat colored)
Moreninha (toffeelike)
Mulatta (mixture of white and Negro)
Mulatinha (lighter-skinned white-Negro)
Negra (negro)
Negrota (Negro with a corpulent vody)
P�lida (pale)
Para�ba (like the color of marupa wood)
Parda (dark brown)
Parda-clara (lighter-skinned person of mixed race)
Polaca (Polish features; prostitute)
Pouco-clara (not very clear)
Pouco-morena (dusky)
Preta (black)
Pretinha (black of a lighter hue)
Puxa-para-branca (more like a white than a mulatta)
Quase-negra (almost Negro)
Queimada (burnt)
Queimada-de-praia (suntanned)
Queimada-de-sol (sunburned)
Regular (regular; nondescript)
Retinta ("layered" dark skin)
Rosa (roseate)
Rosada (high pink)
Rosa-queimada (burnished rose)
Roxa (purplish)
Ruiva (strawberry blond)
Russo (Russian; see also polaca)
Sapecada (burnished red)
Sarar� (mulatta with reddish kinky hair, aquiline nose)
Sara�ba (or saraiva: like a white meringue)
Tostada (toasted)
Trigueira (wheat colored)
Turva (opaque)
Verde (greenish)
Vermelha (reddish)
Can a plane ride change your race?
Looking at the distinctions in Japan, Mexico and Brazil might not make sense to us because we view race so differently. However, all of this is evidence that race is a social construction. Read the passage below and then answer the questions after.
4. Answer individually: Did the girl’s race change? Why or why not?
5. As a group discuss, each student share his/her answer to this question. Change or add to your thoughts above as needed. Then as a group decide on one answer: Yes or NO?
Here is a link to different censuses around the world.
Click on the link and then note in your packet which race you would be in the other countries around the world.
When you are finished, which countries were you a different race than how you identify yourself in the U.S.?
Here is a link to a survey of who is white around the world.
And here is a global dialogue about race.
Global Systems of Racial
Construction; Race is socially constructed differently around the world.
F&S 217-222
What is some evidence
from around the world that race is a social construct?
Why would a plane ride change your race?
What evidence is there that race is constructed differently depending on where you are?
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