Race: Theory, Culture, and Politics in the United States Today

Abstract

Employs racial formation theory to examine contemporary US racial dynamics. According to this theory, the meaning of race is contested throughout social life as a constituent aspect of collective identities & social structures. This contest is played out through a multidimensional process of competing racial projects that intersect & clash. It is indicated by a brief review of post-WWII racial history that the US is currently in a transition from a pattern of racial domination to one of hegemony. In this context, decentered notions of race have spawned multiple racial projects -- including those of the far Right, the New Right, neoconservatism, pragmatic liberalism, & radical democracy -- all of which are vying to construct a new racial hegemony. Oppositions within this competition are not repressed or excluded, but are incorporated & inserted into a modern social order. In particular, the state, the media, large corporations, & other key societal institutions are described as instituting political initiatives through the incorporation of cultural narratives from competing racial projects. It is suggested that, to succeed in this environment, the radical democratic project ought to connect the question of discrimination as a racial process to its class consequences. 1 Table. D. M. Smith