Rule Of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance

by Steve Martinot

An important history of the way class formed in the US, The Rule of Racialization offers a rich new look at the invention of whiteness and how the inextricable links between race and class were formed in the seventeenth century and consolidated by custom, social relations, and eventually naturalized by the structures that organize our lives and our work. Arguing that, unlike in Europe, where class formed around the nation-state, race deeply informed how class is defined in this country and, conversely, our unique relationship to class in this country helped in some ways to invent race as a distinction in social relations. Martinot begins tracing this development in the slave plantations in 1600s colonial life. He examines how the social structures encoded there lead to a concrete development of racialization. He then takes us up to the present day, where forms of those structures still inhabit our public and economic institutions. Throughout, he engages historical and contemporary thinkers on the nature of race in the US, creating a book that at once synthesizes significant critiques of race while at the same time offers a completely original conception of how race and class have o

Genres: Race

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

The exhibiting of an absolute golden rule, The Rules of Racialization in many examples and explanations posits that white identity is based upon racialization of people as "white" and "non-white". Racism as inherent in the current society's structure is a dialectic process that through circular logic recreates itself through people's allegiance to it.