Sociology 100

Social Brief #6
Words: 590
Racial Formations
The author of Racial Formations, Michael Omi and Howrad Winant talk about
the definition of race, Omi and Winant discuss how being White is considered pure
where every other race is mixed, secondary. With the discovery of Africa,
Europeans attempted to reconcile racial differences with religion to validate
mistreatment of blacks. More than its neighbouring countries, US has always had a
very rigid towards races. Even if a ancestor in a long blood line was not white, a
person cannot be recognised as white despite their Caucasian colour. The authors
also shed light on the fact that subconsciously, the first things we notice about a
person are their race and sex, which help us create assumptions about them to aid
conversation. The way working class has been constituted throughout the eras also
has a very important part in how race is viewed, because of discrimination and
menial, often temporary job opportunities, blacks are seen a poor class with heavy
dependence on the system. Omi and Winant argue that the qualities we stereotype
with race are fluid and not strong enough to be held as a standard.
Tufuku Zuberi discusses how in the fifteenth century a majority of slaves were
not black and race has little to do with social status. When the sugar industry was
pushed to Africa, more and more people being enslaved were blacks as they were
plentiful and not protected by many laws. Rather, rulers and religious figures
blessed explorers looking to exploit slaves and gold in foreign lands. The Africans
were supplied to Americas by Dutch, French and English merchants and it became a
norm for the settlers to see slaves to be black and whites (Europeans) as people of
wealth. Even after the abolishment of slavery, it should be realised that although
the slaves were freed, they were immensely poor. In most cases, the only difference
was that their relationship with their Master had changed to landlords who still
were dominating over them. So despite the end of slavery, the distinction between
classes was never able to heal. To further cement the racialization, religious
scholars and scientists took the Theory of Being to explain that blacks were a less
advanced form of life. Zuberi reveals that it was only after the studies of Malthus
and Darwin that these ideologies were seen as false. However even then, the
writers argue that since whites are the farthest from the apes, they are more
advanced and refined than people of colour.
I think the racial differences our society suffers from till date is a very simple
matter of who played the first hand. Since Europeans were materialistically wealthy
when they discovered Africa they were able to label themselves as the superior
race. With the help of African innocence, weapons, political play, and false promises,
they were able to take Africans as slaves and bring them to their homelands and

even export them to the Americas. Because these people were brought in as slaves
they were immensely poor, even after the abolishment of slavery. As Omi and
Winant point out, racial distinction is a built in function and because we as a society
have been trained by our media and tradition to see non-white a certain way, it is
very hard to treat them as equals. Racial disparity took hundreds of years in the
making and to dissolve the notion that race defines a persons status in society will
not be a matter of months or few years.