Race and gender interlock as socially constructed relational categories

Evidence

Collins invented the phrase “matrix of domination” to describe the “overall social organization within which intersecting oppressions originate, develop, and are contained” (Collins 2008 227228). Evelyn Nakano Glenn argues that race and gender are relational concepts in an interlocking system, providing a historical examination of citizenship and labor in the United States between 1870 and 1930. Glenn argues that these categories cannot be understood separately, but are defined and given meaning inrelationship to each other: “Race and gender share three key features as analytic concepts: (1) they are relational concepts whose construction involves (2) representation and material relations and (3) in which power is a constitutive element” (Glenn 2002, 12-13). — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 136

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘matrix of domination’ and the relational-concepts thesis of race and gender.
• XREF: Connects to the vault’s existing intersectionality claims and racial-formation framework. — connects to: Intersectionality fails because it assumes race and gender categories stay fixed; Native tribal membership rules co-construct race with gender and settler logics — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 84; Racial hierarchies operate through gender, sexuality, and class simultaneously — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 786 (+2 more)