The Dictionary of Human Geography

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and Stephen J. Gould challenged the bio-

logical and genetic basis of racial identifica-

tion, arguing that there is more genetic

variation within a nominally ‘racial’ group

than between such groups. However, these

and other scholars effectively placed nature

outside the field of culture and politics, argu-

ing either that ‘race’ was cultural and not nat-

ural or that genetic maps could not be

projected on to cultural behaviours (Haraway,

1989). As such, the debate often became

polarized between nature and nurture: Was

race a biological category or a cultural one?

Science was assumed to have the authority to

speak fornatureand, as a result, the cultural

politics of the supposed ‘science of race’ was

left largely unchallenged. More recent scholar-

ship in science and technology studies by

Donna Haraway (1989), Nancy Stepan Leyes

(1990 [1986]) and Ian Hacking (1999) has

help move away from the nature–culture dual-

ism that underwrote these discussions, and has

shown that nature and the voices that speak for

and about race and the science of race are

always already bound up in politics.

These approaches to understanding race

have been echoed in contemporary black cul-

tural studies, Chicano studies, ethnic studies

and critical race theory, which have

approached racial difference and affinities as

constructed through social struggles, shared

histories and everyday practices positioning

racialized subjects and their formation within

multiple relations ofpower. Rather than fixed

difference, ‘race’ is understood as a contingent

formation unevenly produced in different

times and places with no invariant meaning

or universal form (see, e.g., Hesse, 2000;

Fregoso, 2003; Moore, Kosek and Pandian,

2003). As such, many scholars of difference

have abandoned the term ‘race’ altogether,

moving ‘beyond race’ to address the multiple

forms and particularities of social relations,

and denying any overarching integrity or

coherence to race as an analytical concept

while still being attentive to the ways in which

racism(s) are a lived daily reality. jk

Suggested reading

Essed and Goldberg (2002); Gilroy (2000);

Miles and Brown (2003).

racial districtingAn aspect ofredistricting

within the USA intended to ensure that racial

minorities – notably African-Americans and

Hispanics – do not suffer from discrimination,

through such strategies asgerrymandering.

Under the 1965Voting Rights Act,stateswith

records of such discrimination are required to

get redistricting plans pre-cleared by the Dep-

artment of Justice. This usually involves ensur-

ing that there are sufficient ‘minority-majority

districts’ so that, for example, if 30 per cent

of a state’s population is African-American,

then 30 per cent of its Congressional Districts

should contain an African-American majority.

Such schemes remain open to challenge

through the courts on other grounds. rj

Suggested reading

Kousser (1999).

racialization A historically contingent and

contested process through which racial mean-

ings are extended in attempts to define or

redefinerelationship,social practice,object,indi-

vidualsorgroup. The term has become widely

used as a means of stressing that ‘race’isa

social, economic, political and psychological

processthat must be explained, rather than a

biological one that is determined by inherent

characteristics (Omi and Winant, 1996).

Although its origins date back to the late nine-

teenth century, its current use can be traced

to Frantz Fanon’s exploration of the relational

aspects of racial formation and physical

and social dimensions of European domin-

ation andcolonialism(Fanon, 1967 [1961]).

More recently, many scholars have developed

reservations about the term because its over-

usage and vagueness has led to less rigorous

attention to the specific practices and dynam-

ics of racial formation (Goldberg, 2002). jk

Suggested reading

Barot and Bird (2001); Essed and Goldberg

(2002); Miles (1993); Murji and Solomos (2005).

racism Any act that links tendencies, affin-

ities, behaviours or characteristics to an indi-

vidual or community based on innate, indelible

or physiological attributes, intended or not, is

an act of racism. Racism is also the prejudice,

hierarchical differentiation, discrimination

and so on that results from these essentialized

understandings ofraceas an innate factor

that determines human traits and abilities.

Racism may be manifest individually, through

explicit thoughts, feelings or acts, or socially,

through institutions and practices that repro-

duce and essentialize difference and inequities

(seeessentialism; cf.apartheid).

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RACISM