ABSTRACT
Comparative studies have made important contributions to research on race and racisms. Analyzing how race is constructed differently across social contexts, they make explicit the arbitrariness of racialization processes. This chapter focuses on the varied strategies of using empirical and cross-national comparisons to study race and racisms. The chapter begins by outlining the historical development of “comparative race” as a field of study and multiple justifications for and criticisms to the traditional comparisons of race and racisms. The chapter then reviews an array of diverse alternatives for comparing race and racisms that have emerged during the first decades of the 21st century. The chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the ongoing challenges to the comparative study of race and racisms and suggestions for new avenues of research that these challenges imply.
