Comprehensive Race and Discrimination Concepts in U.S. History and Society

Racial Formation

Process by which social, political, and economic forces give meaning to racial categories and shape social relations.

Racialization

Extending racial meaning to a group, identity, or practice that was not previously defined by race.

Ethnicity

Shared cultural identity based on language, customs, traditions, and ancestry.

Racial Etiquette

Informal codes and expectations governing interactions between racial groups (e.g., "acting white/Black").

Psychological Wage of Whiteness

Du Bois: Non-material privileges (status, respect, access) given to whites to divide them from Black and Indigenous people.

Social Construction

Idea that race is not biological but created and changed by social, political, and historical contexts.

Individual, Organizational, and Structural Discrimination

Individual: personal prejudice; Organizational: discriminatory policies in institutions; Structural: systemic inequality across society's institutions.

Prejudice

Preconceived judgment or bias against individuals based on group membership.

Rule of Hypodescent (One-Drop Rule)

Law/social practice that classified anyone with African ancestry as Black.

Racism

System of advantage based on race (Tatum: prejudice + power).

Color-Blind Racism

Bonilla-Silva: Denying racism by using "neutral" language like "equal opportunity" while ignoring structural inequality.

Creolization

Glissant: New cultural forms emerging from forced mixture in colonial/plantation systems (e.g., creole languages).

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation (1877-1954).

De Jure vs. De Facto

De jure: segregation by law; De facto: segregation in practice/custom.

Assimilation

Minority group fully adopts dominant culture, often abandoning original identity.

Acculturation

Exchange of cultural traits while retaining aspects of original identity.

Settler Colonialism

Permanent occupation of Indigenous lands with the goal of erasure or displacement of Native populations.

Reparations

Compensation or redress for historical injustices (e.g., slavery, boarding schools, Japanese incarceration).

Human Rights vs. Civil Rights

Human rights: universal protections owed to all people; Civil rights: protections guaranteed by law within a nation-state.

Segregation / Residential Segregation

Separation of groups in daily life and neighborhoods, often enforced by law or policy.

Jus Solis / Birthright Citizenship

Citizenship granted to anyone born on U.S. soil (affirmed in Wong Kim Ark, 1898).

Naturalization

Legal process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Model Minority Myth

Stereotype portraying Asian Americans as successful, used to minimize systemic racism and pit groups against each other.

Yellow Peril

Fear that Asian immigrants threatened U.S. jobs and culture.

Prison Industrial Complex

System where prisons, corporations, and government profit from mass incarceration (Angela Davis).

War on Drugs

Policies from the 1970s-80s that criminalized drug use and disproportionately targeted Black and Brown communities.

Mass Incarceration

Large-scale imprisonment of minorities, framed by Michelle Alexander as the "New Jim Crow.

Militarization of the Police

Use of military tactics, equipment, and culture in civilian policing.

Over-Policing

Heavy law enforcement presence in communities of color.

Racial Profiling

Targeting individuals for suspicion or policing based on race.

Recidivism

Likelihood of reoffending after release from prison.

Southern Strategy

Republican Party strategy appealing to white racial resentment after the Civil Rights Movement.

Felony Disenfranchisement Laws

Stripping voting rights from people with felony convictions.

Broken Windows Policing

Policing minor crimes under belief it prevents major crime; disproportionately harms minority communities.

Abolition

Movement to dismantle prisons and policing systems; advocates for alternatives (Angela Davis).

Decriminalization

Reducing or removing criminal penalties for certain acts (e.g., drug use).

Rehabilitation

Restoring offenders through education and treatment instead of punishment.

Sundown Towns

All-white communities where Black people were excluded or threatened after dark.

Deed Restrictions / Racial Covenants

Property deeds that barred nonwhite ownership or residency.

Redlining

Government-backed denial of loans/mortgages in minority neighborhoods.

White Flight & Urban Blight

White populations leaving cities for suburbs; cities left underfunded and segregated.

Disposability

View of marginalized groups as expendable in labor, housing, and health systems.

Black Lives Matter

Movement against systemic racism and police violence toward Black communities.

Informed Consent

Medical principle requiring patients' voluntary agreement to treatment/procedures.

Health Disparities

Unequal health outcomes between racial/ethnic groups.

Weathering

Cumulative health toll of chronic stress from racism and inequality.

Involuntary Sterilization

Forced sterilization of marginalized women (Black, Latina, Indigenous) often without consent (e.g., Madrigal v. Quilligan).

1712 Act for the Better Ordering & Governing of Negroes and Slaves (South Carolina)

Gave enslavers complete control; criminalized resistance; required free whites to help suppress uprisings.

1790 Naturalization Act

Restricted naturalized U.S. citizenship to 'free white persons.'

1830 Indian Removal Act

Authorized forced displacement of Native nations (Trail of Tears).

1830 An Act Prohibiting the Teaching of Slaves to Read (North Carolina)

Made it illegal to teach enslaved people literacy, to maintain control.

1854 People v. Hall (CA Supreme Court)

Ruled Chinese witnesses couldn't testify against whites; reinforced racial exclusion from citizenship.

1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford (U.S. Supreme Court)

Declared Black people not citizens; said they had 'no rights which the white man was bound to respect.'

American Indian Boarding Schools / Carlisle Indian School (1879)

Forced assimilation of Native youth through erasure of culture, language, and identity; reparations today include land return, healing projects, and acknowledgment of historical trauma.

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolished slavery, except as punishment for crime.

14th Amendment (1868)

Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection of the laws.

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited racial discrimination in voting (applied to Black men, not women).

1875 Civil Rights Act

Prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations; later struck down by Supreme Court in 1883.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

Banned Chinese immigration; first U.S. immigration restriction by race.

1884 Elk v. Wilkins

Ruled Native American John Elk not a U.S. citizen because he 'owed allegiance' to his tribe.

1887 Dawes Act

Allotted Native land into private parcels; broke up communal tribal holdings.

1890 Louisiana Separate Car Law

Required segregated train cars; challenged in Plessy v. Ferguson.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson (U.S. Supreme Court)

Upheld 'separate but equal' doctrine, legalizing segregation.

1898 U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (U.S. Supreme Court)

Affirmed jus solis (birthright citizenship) for children born in the U.S. to foreign parents.

1924 Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed Act)

Imposed national origins quotas, favoring northern Europeans; banned Asian immigration.

1924 Indian Citizenship Act

Granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S.

1931 Roberto Alvarez v. Lemon Grove (CA)

First successful school desegregation case; ruled segregation of Mexican American children unconstitutional.

1942 Japanese Incarceration / Exec. Order 9066

Authorized removal and internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.

1947 Mendez v. Westminster (CA)

Ruled segregation of Mexican American students unconstitutional; precedent for Brown v. Board.

1954 Brown v. Board of Education (U.S. Supreme Court)

Overturned Plessy; declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

1942-1964 Bracero Program

Brought Mexican laborers to the U.S. for temporary agricultural work; often exploited.

1964 Civil Rights Act

Banned segregation and discrimination in employment, public accommodations, and federally funded programs.

1965 Voting Rights Act

Protected minority voting rights; banned literacy tests and other barriers.

1965 Border Industrialization Program (BIP)

Established maquiladora factories on U.S.-Mexico border to encourage industrialization.

Weinberger

Court case stopping coerced sterilization of two Black sisters; led to informed consent protections.

1978 Madrigal v. Quilligan (CA)

Chicana women coerced into sterilization at L.A. County-USC Medical Center; court ruled against them, but Department of Health mandated bilingual consent forms and waiting periods to stop future abuse.

1619 Project (on democracy)

Argues U.S. democracy is deeply rooted in slavery; enslaved people's struggles for freedom made American ideals of liberty and equality possible.

Michael Omi & Howard Winant

Race is a social construct; racial formation theory: race is created and transformed by political struggle and historical context.

Beverly Tatum

Defines racism as prejudice + power; racism is a systemic advantage, not just individual bias; argues that only those with institutional power can deploy racism.

Pem Buck

Early white privilege laws (e.g., gun rights, land ownership, family rights) were created to divide poor whites from Black and Native laborers.

Paula Rothenberg

Laws are tools for institutionalizing racism; legal systems uphold racial hierarchies.

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Color-blind racism works through four frames: abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, minimization of racism; denies structural inequality.

Edouard Glissant

Creolization: cultural and linguistic creativity emerges from forced mixture in plantation societies; challenges fixed identity by embracing diversity.

James Baldwin

Black English is a legitimate language born of survival under oppression; language reflects identity and resistance.

Deborah Miranda

California Indian history: Spanish missions inflicted cultural erasure, enslavement, and violence on Indigenous communities.

Boarding School Healing Project

Calls for collective reparations for Native children and communities harmed by forced assimilation in boarding schools.

E. Michael Madrid

Traces history of school desegregation, showing how Latinos were also targeted by segregated schooling systems.

Doug Massey

Latinos are racialized as outsiders regardless of citizenship; immigration laws perpetuate inequality.

Aviva Chomsky

Most undocumented status results from U.S. policies; 'deportability' functions as social control over immigrant labor.

Juan Gonzalez

Highlights harms of immigration policies on family separation; critiques U.S. border enforcement.

Erika Lee

Debunks the 'They Keep Coming' myth; shows how fears of endless immigration are cyclical and historically racialized.

Ian Haney López

Citizenship in U.S. history is deeply tied to race; whiteness has been a requirement for full legal belonging.

Yuri Kochiyama

Japanese incarceration during WWII was state-sanctioned racism; she linked this struggle to solidarity with other racial justice movements.

Noy Thrupkaew

The 'model minority myth' is used to silence Asian Americans' struggles and pit minorities against each other.

James Jones

Documents the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932-72), where Black men were denied treatment; exposes medical racism.

Natalia Marques

Focuses on environmental racism; case studies like Flint water crisis (2014) and Standing Rock (2016) show unequal access to clean water.

Chase Puentes & Nicolette Worrell

Indigenous youth leadership in anti-pipeline movements demonstrates ongoing resistance to settler colonialism.

No Más Bebés

Documentary on Mexican American women coerced into sterilization in 1960s-70s LA; links to reproductive justice.

ACLU

Critiques immigration detention and sterilization abuse in modern facilities; calls for accountability and reform.

Dorothy Roberts

Connects sterilization abuse to broader patterns of reproductive oppression against women of color.