The social scientific scholarship at the nexus of race and nationalism is vast, diffuse, and arguably vague to the point of providing as much analytic confusion as clarity. While this intersection of topics has evolved to now provide more globally relevant and interdisciplinary scholarship, sociological analyses of the relationship between race and nationalism has been somewhat more parochial. Specific terms, methodologies, and theories endemic to each sociological subfield, structure a variety of scholarly conversations. In turn, each sociological approach to the linkage between race and nationalism provides specific strengths and weaknesses. When synthesizing these traditions, one is left with a kaleidoscopic view; variegated, attractive, and all-encompassing on the one hand, and fractured, incoherent, and a distraction on the other hand. Accordingly, we tease out the assumptions, uses, and import of four dominant approaches, demonstrating their singular utility as well as the analytic dilemmas they present. We end with a call to analyze the multidimensionality of race in terms of ideologies, identities, interests, institutions, and interactions.