Such an encounter becomes a source of discomfort and momentarily a crisis of racial meaning. |
One of the first things we notice about people when we meet them (along with their sex) is their race. We utilize race to provide clues about who a person is. This fact is made painfully clear when we encounter someone whom we cannot conveniently racially categorize—someone who is for example, racially ‘‘mixed’’ or of an ethnic/racial group we are not familiar with. Such an encounter becomes a source of discomfort and momentarily a crisis of racial meaning.
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s, (New York and London: Routledge, 1994), 59.
Tags: Howard Winant, Michael Omi