concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: racial formation theory

critical orientations
type: Concept
narrower: racial formation theory

cultural orientations
type: Concept
narrower: racial formation theory

macrosociological theories
type: Concept
narrower: racial formation theory

racial formation theory
type: Concept
broader: macrosociological theories
broader: cultural orientations
broader: critical orientations
definition: Racial formation theory is a theoretical perspective created by sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant that focuses on race relations in the United States. By racial formation, they refer to the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed, and they treat the concept of race as a middle ground between extreme social construction and a rigid, fixed biological definition. [Source: Encyclopedia of Social Problems; Racial Formation Theory]