Convergences and divergences in race theorizing: a critical assessment of race formation theory and systemic racism theory

Racial Formation Theory and Systemic Racism in Hip‐Hop Fans’ Perceptions

“…Scholars have examined how RFT appears in everyday interactions with television shows, media discourse, and video games (Brock , ; Buffington and Fraley ), and how it relates to emotion and the workplace (Froyum ; Wingfield ), material and structural practices (Park and Pellow ), class formation (Jung ; Sallaz ), and racial stratification (Massey ). Critics claim that RFT minimizes the persistence of a racist legacy, does not emphasize whites as agents in creating the racial project, and the theory focuses too much on individual racialized interactions rather than structural processes (Dennis ; Feagin and Elias ; Wingfield ). Scholars claim that the discussion of the three paradigms lack theoretical evolvement (Gordon ) and suggests a linear progression from one paradigm to the other, with RFT as the final shift, without describing how the shift occurs (Dennis ).…”

“…Critics claim that RFT minimizes the persistence of a racist legacy, does not emphasize whites as agents in creating the racial project, and the theory focuses too much on individual racialized interactions rather than structural processes (Dennis ; Feagin and Elias ; Wingfield ). Scholars claim that the discussion of the three paradigms lack theoretical evolvement (Gordon ) and suggests a linear progression from one paradigm to the other, with RFT as the final shift, without describing how the shift occurs (Dennis ). As a theory about race, RFT does not make claims about racism (Dennis ).…”

“…Scholars claim that the discussion of the three paradigms lack theoretical evolvement (Gordon ) and suggests a linear progression from one paradigm to the other, with RFT as the final shift, without describing how the shift occurs (Dennis ). As a theory about race, RFT does not make claims about racism (Dennis ). Instead, RFT asserts that notions of racial groups form in relation to each other so that focusing on race conceptualization helps us understand other social processes such as racism.…”

“…SR purports critical race theory's racial realism, which doubts the progress of racial equality and race‐based advancements (Feagin and Elias ). The SR stance on racial progress focuses on the heavy task of dismantling the system (Dennis ). SR's highly structural perspective emphasizes white agency in a society of pervasive racial inequality, emphasizing race as a central organizing principle of U.S. institutions (Wingfield ).…”

Bridging Immigration Research and Racial Formation Theory to Examine Contemporary Immigrant Identities

“…The racial formation theory framework clearly has flaws. Dennis () has recently criticized it as a “pure” macro‐level model lacking empirical support. In his words, Omi and Winant's model “is similar to a house without room demarcations; essentially, an empty shell” (984) and “there are too many blank spaces around the questions who, what when and how” (987).…”