Race and ethnicity are socially constructed rather than natural categories.

Evidence

A guiding theme in much recent scholarship, which is discussed from a variety of perspectives, concerns the claim that race and ethnicity are not natural categories, even though both concepts are often represented as if they were (Stoler, 1995; Smaje, 2000). Their boundaries are not fixed, nor is their membership uncontested. Race and ethnic groups, like nations, are now quite widely considered to be “imagined communities” (Anderson, 1991), socially conceived and considered, manufactured and inflected group formations (Mosse, 1985; Peterson, 1995). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 104

A guiding theme in much recent scholarship, which is discussed from a variety of perspectives, concerns the claim that race and ethnicity are not natural categories, even though both concepts are often represented as if they were (Stoler, 1995; Smaje, 2000). Their boundaries are not fixed, nor is their membership uncontested. Race and ethnic groups, like nations, are now quite widely considered to be “imagined communities” (Anderson, 1991), socially conceived and considered, manufactured and inflected group formations (Mosse, 1985; Peterson, 1995). They are discursively fashioned or ideologically produced, made and changed in relation to, and molded by, social conditions, relations, clashes, and struggles. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 104

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’ concept and to general constructivist approaches to social categories. — connects to: Race is a social reduction to sheer force, not a natural trait — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 124; Hobbes’s prejudice against Native Americans was civilizational rather than racial. — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 71; Residential preferences are culturally shaped, not rational givens — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 384 (+9 more)
• DEFINE: Sharpens the vault’s working definition of racial formation and racialization as socially constructed categories, linking to Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’ lineage (Omi & Winant themselves draw on this framing).
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 104