Race still functions as a master category distributing resources and rights

Evidence

Despite advances in civil rights law, race continues to function as a master category that determines how resources, dignity, and rights are distributed in the United States. As a result, the lessons taught in school of “liberty and justice for all” have been elusive for tens of millions of racial minorities in the United States. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1075 (#expands, via linked claim)

Massey includes patterns of gender inequality and class inequality (“defined by access to human capital, or more specifically, education” [2008, 252]) in his account, and looks at inequality largely in terms of income, not wealth.** His emphasis on longstanding, deeply entrenched patterns of inequality overlaps in many ways with our claim that in the United States race is a “master category” of domination and inequality. Where we differ is over his reliance on a biologically grounded, cognitively rooted basis for human equality, and indeed over his idea that inequality is the basic framework through which race (and gender as well) should be understood. In Massey’s view, the sociopolitical dimensions of race and racism play a secondary role in structuring race; pride of place goes first to the biological/ evolutionary dynamics of inequality (ie., where the term “categorically” is grounded), with the economic determinations running close behind (that’s the currents. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 75 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The idea of racialized structures has two key components. In the first instance, it refers to the distribution of people and their access to valuable resources such as political power, employment, education, housing, and health. Primarily this aspect involves who owns what, works and lives where, and has good health. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1828 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The discovery doctrine’s racial hierarchy of land rights persists into present-day law.; Race remains the master category distributing rights and resources in America — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 1075; Racialized structures distribute resources and access by race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1828 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Race remains the master category distributing rights and resources in America #expands (0.98) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1075
• Omi and Winant claim race is a master category of domination and inequality #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 75
• Racialized structures distribute resources and access by race #expands (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1828
• Race is one among several constructed categories used to justify inequality #complicates (0.82) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 28
• The instability of racial categories undermines organizing around race in Latin America #complicates (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1200