Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s

Winnant and Omi describe this book as a “call-out,” meaning “a demand that new attention be paid to the deepening crisis of race and racism in the contemporary United States” (1). Highlighting the election of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, they note that the election has been seen as evidence that the United States has been “moving ‘beyond race’” (1).

In response, the authors cite activist Malcolm X, who remarked that if someone is stabbed six inches with a knife, it is still an improvement over being stabbed nine inches. In contrast to popular views that racism has declined and the goals of the civil rights movement have been achieved, the authors argue that racism is still present in systems of incarceration, housing, economics, health care access, and culture. Two reasons are given for the persistence of such racism. The first is the existence of systemic racism, meaning racial bias embedded in political, social, and economic systems. The second is that “race and racial meanings are neither stable nor consistent” (2).

Racism is shaped by historical forces, namely the conflict between oppression by white people and the struggles against such oppression by people of color.