Race is one among several constructed categories used to justify inequality

Evidence

We all engage in “making up people” (Hacking 2006, 1999) as a way to navigate in the social world — to situate ourselves and others in the context of social hierarchies, to discern friend from foe, and to provide a guide to social interactions with different individuals and groups. Race is not unique as a category of difference. Gender, class, age, nationality, and culture have all been invoked to capture, and in many cases explain, difference. This process is not benign. It involves “othering,” which is used to justify subordinate status, unequal treatment, to structure oppression and exploitation in numerous ways. It is important to note, on the flip side, that resistance to such oppressive practices also involves the creation of social categories of difference. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 28

Categorization

• XREF: This is the conceptual root connecting racial formation to the vault’s existing claims about race as a social construction and ‘othering’ logic. — connects to: Race is a culturally invented discursive category used to inferiorize groups. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1106
• DEFINE: Introduces ‘making up people’ (Hacking) as the universal mechanism of which racial classification is one instance.