Racialization is an unstable, never-ending process steered by variable criteria including religion
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. See ibid., 71. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1691
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines racialization as an unstable, contested process — the theoretical backbone for Beydoun’s argument that Muslims are racialized.
- XREF: This is the Omi-Winant racial formation framework that underpins the racialization-of-Muslims argument throughout the book; connects to the reader’s guiding question about how states construct Muslim identity.