122 Bomi Ehabha

kIr Thomason's communication lo the Church hlissionary Society, Seplern her 5 , 18 19, in The hfissionarfl Register, 1 82 1, pp, 3 4-5. U. Anderson, Irmqined Communities (London: Verso, 1987). p. 88. fiid.. pp. 88-9. J. Cdnrarl, Noslrolno (London: Pcnguirl, 1979), p. 161. L: S. Naipaul, Be Mimic A h (T.ondon: Penguin, 19 6 7 ) , p. 146. F. hnon, Blrack Skin, \+'hi& Mmks [London: Paladin, 19 70!, g. 109. A. Cesajre, Uiscou~w on Colonialisrt~ (Nerz* York: Monthly Review Press, 1972). p. 21. M. Foucault, "Yietwche, Genealogy, History," in his Lnng~mge, Cou~ter+ Memory, Prfictlce, trans. D. F. Bouchard and S. Shmn (Ithacn: Corncll University Press, 19 7 7). p. 1 3 3 . E. Stokes, The English Utiliiavinns nnd India (Oxford: O x b d University Press. 1959). p. d. S. Freud, "The Unconscious" ( 1 9 15), SE. XN, pp. 190-1. Fallon, R h k Skfn, \l+ite ~ldasks, p. 103. E. Long, /1 History of Jaa~aica, 1774, 1701. LI, p. 3 53 . E. Said. ''The'I?ext, the World. Ihe Critic," in J. T Harari (ed.), T e x ~ d S t r a t e - gies (Ithaca: Cornell TJniversib Press, 1979j. p. 184.

Farioxl, "Racism and CuItnre," in his Toward the African Revolulhn, trans. 11. ChevaIier (Landon: Pckcan, 196 7). p. 44. M. Foucault, The Order nj' T l f i ~~gs (New York: Par~thcwn Rooks, 19 71), par1 IT. ch. 9. Long, Histor3 oJ Jar~zaica, p. 3 64. f i e Missiunary Register. May 18 17, p. 186.

Racial Formation

. Michael Omi and Howard Winant

What is Race?

Therc is a conlinuous temptation ta think d race as an essence, as something bed, cuncrete, and objective. And there is also an oppasite templalion: to imagine race as a merc i~~usion, a purely ideological construct which some ideal nonracisl social order would eliminate. It is necessary to challenge both thcse positions, to disrupt and &ame the rigid and bipolar manner in which they are posed and dcbated, and to transcend the pre,sumably irrecancilabIe relationship beiween them.

The effort must be made to understand race as an unslable and "decentered" cr~mplcx of social meanings constanlIy being lransformed by political struggle. IViilh this in mind, let us pmpose a definition: race is a concept ~vhich signijus uad sgmbolizes social cor$licfs and interests by referring to diflerenl types of human bodies. Although the concept of race invokes biologicallj~ based human c h a r a c ~ i s t i m (so-called "pheno- types"), sektiun d these particular human features for pupnscs of racial signification is always and necessarily a social and hislorical process, In contrast to the other major distinction of this type, of gender, there is no biological basis for distinguishing among human groups along h e lines of race.' Indeed, the categories employed to dif- ferentiate among human groups alung racial lines reveal ~lemselr~es,