Race served as ideological glue binding an otherwise divided nation

Evidence

There have continually been two contradictory principles at work: national unity and racial division. To fuel and justify first the colonial impulse and later the nationbuilding process, race has served as what Antonio Gramsci called an ideological “glue” (Gramsci 1971, 328). — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 85

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Gramsci’s ‘ideological glue’ concept as applied to race in American nation-building.
• XREF: connects to: Racial restriction’s victory deflated the manufactured solidarity that had sustained it