ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the process and analysis of race-making in the States. It argues that race-making and its generator, racism, are part and parcel of the maimer by which major industrial European-descent nation-states such as the United States have originated and developed. A theory of race and racism in mature industrial society must consider the role of bureaucracy. The most provocative studies on race-making have examined cultural pluralism, resource competition, and racial polarization in Third nation-states and regions. A theory of race-making must attend to more than economic issues. The emphasis on economic issues appears in the assessments of internal colonialism as well as that on dual labor markets. The literature on race relations in the United States is grounded primarily in one of two approaches: the race-relations cycle approach, or the structural-functional approach. There is a growing literature that offers a critical perspective on the structure and organization of mature industrial societies.