Race is actively constructed through the ongoing act of defining groups.

Evidence

Race is a way of “making up people.” The very act of defining racial groups is a process fraught with confusion, contradiction, and unintended consequences. Concepts of race prove to be unreliable as supposed boundaries shift, slippages occur, realignments become evident, and new collectivities emerge. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 108

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core thesis statement — race as ‘making up people’ is the definitional anchor for the racial-formation framework.
• XREF: connects to: Racial states actively define populations into racial groups through state apparatuses — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1688