Racism functions to secure a dominant group’s hegemony over subordinate groups.

Evidence

One must start, then, from the concrete historical “work” which racism accomplishes under specific historical conditions—as a set of economic, political, and ideological practices, of a distinctive kind, concretely articulated with other practices in a social formation. These practices ascribe the positioning of different social groups in relation to one another with respect to the elementary structures of society; they fix and ascribe those positionings in ongoing social practices; they legitimate the positions so ascribed. In short, they are practices which secure the hegemony of a dominant group over a series of subordinate ones, in such a way as to dominate the whole social formation in a form favorable to the long-term development of the economic productive base. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 635

Categorization

• XREF: Ties Hall’s framing of racism-as-hegemonic-practice to Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, which the reader must grasp to follow the essays. Also connects to the Frankfurt School’s analysis of ideology-as-domination. — connects to: Racism becomes hegemonic when subordinated groups consent to naturalized hierarchy. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 461; Racism uses value hierarchies framed as natural to control and exploit — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1100; Racism is a societal system of ethnic and racial domination, not merely ideology — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1051 (+2 more)