9.2: Theoretical Frameworks- The State as a Racial Project

Sociologists utilize several key frameworks to understand the relationship between race and the political-legal system. As mentioned in several previous chapters, Racial Formation Theory is the predominant framework for analyzing race as a socially constructed category. To reiterate, Omi and Winant argue that race is a “master category”—a fundamental organizing principle of social life that is continuously shaped and reshaped through racial projects. A racial project is “simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines” (Omi and Winant, 1994:56). Every law or policy with a disparate racial impact—from the Naturalization Act of 1790 to the War on Drugs—constitutes a racial project.

Another notable and aforementioned theoretical framework is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Originating in legal studies, CRT posits that racism is not an aberration but a normal, embedded feature of the American legal system (Delgado and Stefancic 2017). CRT scholars argue that the law’s purported neutrality and colorblindness often mask and perpetuate systemic racism. Key tenets include the social construction thesis, interest convergence (the idea that advances for BIPOC communities only occur when they also serve White interests), and the centrality of experiential knowledge through storytelling (Crenshaw 1989).

Additionally aforementioned, often embedded in the CRT literature is the notion of Intersectionality. Coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), intersectionality critiques single-axis analyses of discrimination. It argues that systems of race, gender, class, and other identities overlap to create unique modes of discrimination and disadvantage. For example, the political experiences and legal vulnerabilities of a poor, undocumented Latina are distinct from those of a wealthy Black man or a White working-class woman, requiring a multifaceted analysis of power.