Racialization, Process of

Racialization is a social process and relation. Therefore, racial identity and its corollary effects—for example, contested issues in education such as intelligence and achievement—are not properties of individuals. Race is not “within us” as either a biological fact or a form of possession. It is not biological because race has very little to do with skin, bones, and blood—to use W. E. B. Du Bois's terminology—but, rather, is a historical form of social hierarchy that benefits certain groups and disadvantages others. The system of racialization uses indicators such as skin color to rationalize a relationship that everyone who participates in recognizes as social reality. Race is not a possession of individuals because racialization is a relation that gives meaning to life chances as part of ...

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