Race is not fixed but is perpetually reinvented through historical conflict

Evidence

Race is unstable, flexible, and subject to constant conflict and reinvention. Rather than seeing the present moment —whatever moment that is—as distilling the longue durée of racial politics, we in the United States should recognize that we live in history. Especially in this country there is a desire for instant solutions for problems, even for deepseated conflicts: Just add boiling water, just heat and serve. If the bad news is that there are no quick fixes for structural racism, the good news is that we live in history. We built this society over historical time; we can rebuild it as well. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 9

Categorization

• DEFINE: States the core premise that race is historically contingent and malleable, foundational to the racial-formation thesis.
• XREF: Anchors vault claims that race is a social construction reinvented over time; connects to existing CRT/racial-formation entries. — connects to: Empire is a mutable structure that keeps reconfiguring race.; Empire must keep reworking itself and can fail to secure racial regimes — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 105; The same racecraft tools operate against every subordinated minority across centuries — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 455 (+2 more)