Race is an unreal myth that racism itself produces through fluid identities

Evidence

For decades, Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) and Latina & Latino Critical Legal Theory (“LatCrit”) scholars have debated the construction of race and the operations of racism in the United States. This article uses this rich literature as well as the work of historians Cedric Robinson and Barbara J. Fields and sociologist Karen E. Fields to argue that race is a specter or a myth and that we should take its unreality much more seriously than we do. In other words, although racism exists, race itself is not real, it is not a fact, and it is not immutable. Furthermore, this article argues, along with Robinson, that racism produces not only the specter of race but fluid identities as it addresses itself to specific and identifiable groups of people. If we accept these theories regarding racism, race, and racial identities, then Muslim as a racial category and Islam-as-race become far more intelligible. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 39

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the core racecraft thesis: race is unreal specter produced by racism, so identity is fluid and contingent rather than fixed.
• XREF: Directly comparable to Aziz’s ‘Racial Muslim’ historical argument and to the Fields sisters’ racecraft concept this reader is tracking. — connects to: Racism is real while race itself is a myth — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 39; Race exists only as a specter produced by racism, not as reality; Races are produced by racism, not by biology — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 76 (+10 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that race’s unreality should be taken more seriously, not less, is the paradigm-carrying move that inverts how anti-racist law usually proceeds.

Broader Connections

• Race exists only as a specter produced by racism, not as reality #corroborates (0.97)
• Racism is real but race is only an idea manufactured by racist practice. #corroborates (0.96)
• Racism is real while race itself is a myth #corroborates (0.95) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 39
• Racism precedes and produces race, not the reverse #corroborates (0.93) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 52
• Racism creates races through practice, and the practice hides itself as its own evidence #expands (0.92) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 322
• Races are produced by racism, not by biology #corroborates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76
• New racial identities can form in response to racism itself #exemplifies (0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 51
• Race is the conceptual form through which the practice of racism operates #expands (0.82)
• Race is socially constructed rather than biologically real but has powerful social effects #qualifies (0.80) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 113
• Preexisting race-thinking gave racism a false veneer of respectability #complicates (0.78)
• Race is simultaneously externally imposed and freely self-assumed #complicates (0.75)
• Race as static identity undermines the case that whiteness is socially produced #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 766