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WHAT IS RACIAL DOMINATION?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2009

Matthew Desmond  and
Mustafa Emirbayer
Matthew Desmond*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Mustafa Emirbayer
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin—Madison
*
Matthew Desmond, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 8128 William H. Sewell Social Sciences Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393. Email: mdesmond@ssc.wisc.edu
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Abstract

When students of race and racism seek direction, they can find no single comprehensive source that provides them with basic analytical guidance or that offers insights into the elementary forms of racial classification and domination. We believe the field would benefit greatly from such a source, and we attempt to offer one here. Synchronizing and building upon recent theoretical innovations in the area of race, we lend some conceptual clarification to the nature and dynamics of race and racial domination so that students of the subjects—especially those seeking a general (if economical) introduction to the vast field of race studies—can gain basic insight into how race works as well as effective (and fallacious) ways to think about racial domination. Focusing primarily on the American context, we begin by defining race and unpacking our definition. We then describe how our conception of race must be informed by those of ethnicity and nationhood. Next, we identify five fallacies to avoid when thinking about racism. Finally, we discuss the resilience of racial domination, concentrating on how all actors in a society gripped by racism reproduce the conditions of racial domination, as well as on the benefits and drawbacks of approaches that emphasize intersectionality.

Keywords

RaceRace TheoryRacial DominationInequalityIntersectionality
Type
STATE OF THE ART
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Fall 2009 , pp. 335 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2009

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