The Hegemonic Theories Of Racialization And Ethnography

Racialization is the process of grouping people together into a socially constructed identity of race, typically based on phenotype. Through the process of racial formation, these identities are placed into a hierarchy of race such that different groups have superiority over others based on how they have racialized. These ideologies of racial superiority are perpetuated hegemonically, that is to say that these ideologies permeate the institutions of a society as if they were common-sense. Historically, the hegemonic ideology of white supremacy has permeated institutions across the globe due to the overwhelming colonization done by whites. Examples of hegemonic structures that perpetuate white supremacy as described in the Takaki, Wolfe, and Smallwood readings are the socioeconomic institutions of slavery, Apartheid, the Trail of Tears, and a more contemporary example such as the West Bank barrier.

The institution of slavery in America would not have been possible without the hegemonic belief in white supremacy. There needed to be presiding belief in the inherent inferiority of blacks to whites in order for there to be an institution of slavery solely based on the black race. The racialization of blacks as inferior allowed for the justification of the enslavement of blacks and maintained the position of blacks as below whites in the racial hierarchy. This is institution of slavery allowed white people to economically benefit just as they did the times of African Apartheid. Similarly, the racialization of Native American groups as savages allowed for them to be subjected to