The Roots of Racial Categorization

This chapter argues that Colson Whitehead’s novel Sag Harbormirrors post-Black art’s emphasis on simultaneously rejecting and embracing the racial categorization of African American art. In doing so, Whitehead’s novel represents a qualified liberation for African American artists that optimistically imagines a freedom from racial categorizations that is still rooted in them. This chapter analyzes Whitehead’s novel in the context of the competing definitions of post-Blackness offered by Touré in Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? as well as in the original formulation by Thelma Golden. Employing a framework of “racial individualism,” the chapter argues that a loosening sense of linked fate has led to the privileging of individual agency over Black identity. In doing so, post-Blackness serves to discursively liberate African American artists from any prescriptive ideal of what constitutes black art without implying either a desire or intent to not address issues of race.

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Introduction

Reimagining Hagar ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198745327.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Nyasha Junior

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Race And Ethnicity ◽

Reception History ◽

Literary Imagination ◽

Background Information ◽

Racial Categorization ◽

Biblical Scholarship ◽

The Us ◽

Research Questions ◽

Biblical Texts

This chapter discusses the aims of Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible. The key research questions for this book are: (1) How did Hagar become Black? and (2) What purpose did or does that serve? It situates this project at the intersection of African American biblical scholarship and reception history within biblical scholarship. This chapter introduces terminology related to race and ethnicity and provides background information on issues of color within the ancient world and within biblical texts. It explores the persistence of racial categorization within US society and the US literary imagination despite the lack of biological or genetic basis for contemporary notions of race. It discusses the importance of African American vernacular traditions and the ongoing and dynamic social and cultural interactions between African Americans and biblical texts. It provides an overview of each chapter within the book.

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W. E. B. Du Bois

A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois ◽

10.5810/kentucky/9780813174907.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Charles W. Mills

Keyword(s):

Political Philosophy ◽

Global Economy ◽

Political Equality ◽

Racial Categorization ◽

Du Bois ◽

American Capitalism ◽

Starting Point ◽

To Come ◽

Equal Citizenship ◽

Modern Form

In this essay, Charles W. Mills seeks to catalyze a comparable recognition of Du Bois’s theoretical achievements in political philosophy. Since Du Bois engaged critically with many different forms of political thought, his beliefs do not neatly align with any one political philosophy, challenging scholarly orthodoxies to the point of exclusion by mainstream scholarship. However, recent work in slavery, American capitalism, and global economy has aligned with Du Bois’s theories, and his influence is increasingly acknowledged in shaping discussions of race. Mills argues that Western political philosophy, especially in its modern form, is heavily dependent on racial categorization and subjugation, despite its supposed commitment to free and equal citizenship for all. Du Bois recognized the need to reframe Western philosophical concepts in order to establish black political equality and critiqued this framework, providing a starting point for the black political thinkers to come after him.

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Federal Racial Categorization

Spurious Issues ◽

10.4324/9780429307324-3 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 55-86

Author(s):

Rainier Spencer

Keyword(s):

Racial Categorization

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Introducing the Sociopolitical Motive × Intergroup Threat Model to Understand How Monoracial Perceivers’ Sociopolitical Motives Influence Their Categorization of Multiracial People

Personality and Social Psychology Review ◽

10.1177/1088868320917051 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 260-286 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Arnold K. Ho ◽

Nour S. Kteily ◽

Jacqueline M. Chen

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Social Dominance ◽

Research Area ◽

System Justification ◽

Group Status ◽

Intergroup Threat ◽

Threat Model ◽

Racial Categorization ◽

Moderating Role

Researchers have used social dominance, system justification, authoritarianism, and social identity theories to understand how monoracial perceivers’ sociopolitical motives influence their categorization of multiracial people. The result has been a growing understanding of how particular sociopolitical motives and contexts affect categorization, without a unifying perspective to integrate these insights. We review evidence supporting each theory’s predictions concerning how monoracial perceivers categorize multiracial people who combine their ingroup with an outgroup, with attention to the moderating role of perceiver group status. We find most studies cannot arbitrate between theories of categorization and reveal additional gaps in the literature. To advance this research area, we introduce the sociopolitical motive × intergroup threat model of racial categorization that (a) clarifies which sociopolitical motives interact with which intergroup threats to predict categorization and (b) highlights the role of perceiver group status. Furthermore, we consider how our model can help understand phenomena beyond multiracial categorization.

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