US Marxists substituted national categories for racial ones out of theoretical necessity

Evidence

Lacking an orthodox Marxist theory of racism, and unable to examine U.S. society without a comforting pillow of citations from the “classics,” Marxists of all varieties have performed some strenuous theoretical labor in their efforts to apply the literature on the “national question” to racial dynamics in the United States. The general practice has been to substitute national categories for racial ones. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 98

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Dense claim: the absence of an orthodox Marxist theory of racism forced a category-substitution that systematically misread U.S. racial dynamics — a structural failure of the whole tradition worth sitting with.