Unitary categories like race and class fray at the edges under sustained analysis

Evidence

In a more specific way, the plan for sweeping integrations also assures the stability of one specific kind of explanation, whose idealism would exclude all inconsistencies of what had best be called class, race, sex; although, if such analyses were taken far enough, even these names would begin to show the ragged edges of their own limits as unitary determinations. … All human activity is seen as specifically integrative cognitive activity and the end becomes a “theory of theories.” — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 354

Categorization

• QUESTION: Relevant to the strategic-essentialism bind: Spivak concedes the unitary determinations are inadequate but must be used anyway — exactly the aporia of strategic essentialism.
• XREF: connects to: Racial category emphasis can obscure shared interests across racial lines — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 120; Crossed categories reduce in-group bias and dependence on single identities — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 530; Racism, gender, and class interconnections defy grand theoretical specification — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3005 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial categorization of the same person varies by time, place, and context #exemplifies (0.88)
• Racism, gender, and class interconnections defy grand theoretical specification #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3005
• Racial configurations both mask and mitigate class exploitation in unknowable ways #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 127
• Racial category emphasis can obscure shared interests across racial lines #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 120
• Race alone is not a unifying force without class analysis #complicates (0.80) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 22
• Crossed categories reduce in-group bias and dependence on single identities #complicates (0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 530