3552 - Seeing Beyond the State: Understanding Racial Classification and Racism in the United States From Below

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

While sociologists studying race and ethnicity in Latin America have long been concerned with the disjuncture between official and everyday categories, much of the sociology of race and ethnicity in the United States has relied o racial categories officially recognized by the state, sometimes called the "racial pentagon": White, Black, Hispanic, Asian American, and American Indian. This panel is about what scholars of race in the United States may miss when they look exclusively at the categories of the state, and to showcase alternative ways to understand how racialization and difference-making operate to generate inequality in this country. What are the categories that Americans use in everyday life which may not fit into the boxes recognized by official classification, but that may be consequential for reproducing inequality? To which extent does the meaning and significance of officially and extra-officially recognized categories vary according to geographic and institutional contexts within the United States? Does racialization and the ways in which it generates inequality even happen in categorical ways, or do they take more continuous forms? What are the political consequences of racialized distinctions and power relations that are not officially recognized by either the state or by much of social science? And what are some of the theories, methods and approaches that can be used to bridge this gap?

Sub Unit

• Special Session

Session Organizer

• Luisa Farah Schwartzman, University of Toronto

Presider

• Luisa Farah Schwartzman, University of Toronto

Individual Presentations

• Understanding Distinctions Between 'Black' and 'Brown' among Mexican Gang Members in East Los Angeles - Randol Contreras, University of California, Riverside

• Anti-Muslim Racism and the 'MENA' Box: Expulsions and Escapes from Whiteness - Neda Maghbouleh, University of Toronto

• Inequality without Groups: Culture, Cognition, and the Complexity of Categorization - Ellis Prentis Monk, Harvard University

• Everyday Racism Beyond Euphemisms: Recognizing and Managing Difference in Everyday Life - Andrea M. Voyer, Stockholm University