RaceWorks Toolkit – Defining Race Concept Guide

Defining Race

(from “Doing Race: An Introduction,” ​Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century,​ Moya & Markus, 2010)

Race is:

• a dynamic system of historically-derived and institutionalized ideas and practices;
• not a thing that people have or are, but rather actions that people do;
• a system of social distinction that creates, responds to, and reinforces human difference; and
• not the work of individuals alone, but a product of society.

Race can:

• sort people into groups according to perceived physical and behavioral human characteristics that are often imagined to be negative, innate, and shared;
• associate differential value, power, and privilege with these characteristics, establish a hierarchy among the different groups, and confer opportunity accordingly;
• emerge when groups are perceived to pose a threat (political, economic, or cultural) to each other’s world view or way of life; and/or
• justify the denigration and exploitation (past, current, or future) of other groups while exalting one’s own group to claim an innate privilege.

Race can also:

• allow people to identify with groupings of people on the basis of presumed, and usually claimed, commonalities including several of the following: language, history, nation or region of origin, customs, religion, names, physical appearance, and/or ancestry group;
• when claimed, confer a sense of belonging, pride, and motivation; and/or
• be a source of collective and individual identity.

Video: Race as a Thing vs. Race as a Doing