Deconstructing “identity”, theorizing race

From categorizations to practices

Abstract

Critiques of race studies usually focus on their alleged endorsement of “identitarian” perspectives. The use of the concept of identity is intensely debated and some leading scholars even recommended its abandonment (e.g., see R. Brubaker, 2001). Against essentialist understanding of identity this article shows that the literature on race relations makes it possible to theorize race as the product of three entangled logics of racial formation: self-identification, assignment and socialization. After questioning the social determinants of racial self-identification and ascription, the article turns to the practices that underlie these modes of categorization, in order to consider race as what one does rather than as what one is.