Racial formation is an unstable process transformed by political struggle

Evidence

Race is the product of racial formation, commonly referred to as “racialization.” Racialization is defined “as an unstable and ‘de-centered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle.” Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 1994), 55. Racialization is a fluid and never-ending process, steered by a (changing) set of criteria that includes physical complexion, geographic origins, ancestry, biology, political or social stimuli, and variably, religion. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1691

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader argument that religion can serve as a racializing criterion, echoing how race scholars like Omi and Winant frame race as a social construction rather than biology. — connects to: Empire must keep reworking itself and can fail to secure racial regimes — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 105; Present racial conflicts must be taught as outcomes of a long dynamic history. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 486
• DEFINE: Defines racialization via Omi and Winant and extends it to include religion among racializing criteria.