Racial categories are unstable and shift through contested definition

Evidence

Race is a way of “making up people.” The very act of defining racial groups is a process fraught with confusion, contradiction, and unintended consequences. Concepts of race prove to be unreliable as supposed boundaries shift, slippages occur, realignments become evident, and new collectivities emerge. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 108

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines the perspective treating race as dynamic ‘making up’ of people rather than fixed taxonomy.

Related

• Race is actively constructed through the ongoing act of defining groups. (similarity 0.91)
• Racial categories are unstable social meanings reshaped by political struggle (similarity 0.90)
• Racial formation is an unstable process transformed by political struggle (similarity 0.89)
• Race is an unstable, fully-fledged social fact like class or gender (similarity 0.88)
• Racialization is an unstable, never-ending process steered by variable criteria including religion (similarity 0.87)
• Racialization extends racial meaning to previously unclassified groups or practices. (similarity 0.86)
• Definitions of race and ethnicity themselves require ongoing rethinking. (similarity 0.86)
• Race and ethnicity are socially constructed rather than natural categories. (similarity 0.86)
• Racialization is a political process that constantly transforms assigned social meanings. (similarity 0.85)
• Race categories shift with historical power configurations (similarity 0.85)
• Race is socially constructed rather than biologically real but has powerful social effects (similarity 0.84)
• Racial identity is a dynamic bricolage, not a fixed biological given. (similarity 0.84)
• Race is not fixed but is perpetually reinvented through historical conflict (similarity 0.84)
• Race is a medium that transforms contingent attributes into supposed essences (similarity 0.84)
• Race and racism must be distinguished analytically and politically (similarity 0.84)