Brings together fourteen essays by leading scholars in law, history, sociology, ethnic studies, literature, anthropology and gender studies to consider the past, present and future of racial formation. This book explores far-reaching concerns: slavery and land ownership; labor and social movements; torture and war; and genetics and the body.

List of Illustrations Introduction Daniel Martinez HoSang and Oneka LaBennett Part I. Racial Formation Theory Revisited 1. Gendering Racial Formation Priya Kandaswamy 2. On the Specificities of Racial Formation: Gender and Sexuality in the Historiographies of Race Roderick A. Ferguson 3. The Transitivity of Race and the Challenge of the Imagination James Kyung-Jin Lee 4. Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy Andrea Smith Part II. Racial Projects and Histories of Racialization 5. The Importance of Being Asian: Growers, the United Farm Workers, and the Rise of Colorblindness Matthew Garcia 6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Black): Legal and Cultural Constructions of Race and Nation in Colonial Latin America Michelle A. McKinley 7. Race, Racialization, and Latino Populations in the United States Tomas Almaguer 8. Kill the Messengers: Can We Achieve Racial Justice without Mentioning Race? Gary Delgado 9. The New Racial Preferences: Rethinking Racial Projects Devon W. Carbado and Cheryl I. Harris Part III. War and the Racial State 10. "We didn't kill 'em, we didn't cut their head off": Abu Ghraib Revisited Sherene H. Razack 11. The "War on Terror" as Racial Crisis: Homeland Security, Obama, and Racial (Trans)Formations Nicholas De Genova 12. Racial Formation in an Age of Permanent War Nikhil Singh Conclusion. Racial Formation Rules: Continuity, Instability, and Change Michael Omi and Howard Winant Bibliography List of Contributors Acknowledgements Index

"This collection of essays marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s Racial Formation in the United States demonstrates the importance and influence of the concept of racial formation. The range of disciplines, discourses, ideas, and ideologies makes for fascinating reading, demonstrating the utility and applicability of racial formation theory to diverse contexts, while at the same time presenting persuasively original extensions and elaborations of it. This is an important book, one that sums up, analyzes, and builds on some of the most important work in racial studies during the past three decades."—George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place



“Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century is truly a state-of-the-field anthology, fully worthy of the classic volume it honors—timely, committed, sophisticated, accessible, engaging. The collection will be a boon to anyone wishing to understand the workings of race in the contemporary United States.” —Matthew Frye Jacobson, Professor of American Studies, Yale University



“This stimulating and lively collection demonstrates the wide-ranging influence and generative power of Omi and Winant’s racial formation framework. The contributors are leading scholars in fields ranging from the humanities and social sciences to legal and policy studies. They extend the framework into new terrain, including non-U.S. settings, gender and sexual relations, and the contemporary warfare state. While acknowledging the pathbreaking nature of Omi and Winant’s intervention, the contributors do not hesitate to critique what they see as limitations and omissions. This is a must-read for anyone striving to make sense of tensions and contradictions in racial politics in the U.S. and transnationally.”—Evelyn Nakano Glenn, editor of Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters