While Much Of The Middle Of Blum’s Book Builds On The Ground

While much of the middle of Blum’s book builds on the groundwork laid by Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Color Conscious, he builds on those claims by introducing the term racialization (not to be conflated with racism nor racialism), what is this racialization and how does it account for the reality of race (despite the hypothetical aspects of its social construction), while denying the existence of race as a biological and cultural category? For Blum, why, if a race exists in society, must it be racialized?

Racialization, as introduced by Blum and building upon Appiah’s insights, refers to the social process by which certain groups or identities are assigned particular characteristics, values, or social significance based on perceived racial differences. Importantly, this term is distinct from racism or racialism, as it emphasizes the process of ascribing social meaning to differences rather than merely harboring prejudiced attitudes or believing in inherent racial hierarchies. Racialization articulates how societal structures, practices, and narratives imbue certain groups with racial significance, thereby creating a social reality rooted in perception rather than biological fact.

From a philosophical standpoint, racialization accounts for the ‘reality’ of race in society not by asserting that race is a biological or cultural essence but by highlighting how social processes produce a compelling and persistent social division that appears real and significant. Despite the understanding that race lacks a firm biological or cultural basis—being more a social construct than an innate category—racialization renders race a tangible force within societal interactions and institutions. This discrepancy between the lack of biological reality and the social potency of racial categories underscores a critical philosophical point: social phenomena can have real effects even if they are not grounded in biological facts.

Blum’s argument emphasizes that race, as a social construct, gains its reality through the process of racialization because society continually attributes meaning and significance to particular attributes, behaviors, or features associated with groups. This process creates a social reality that influences individuals’ identities, societal hierarchies, and the distribution of resources and power. For example, the racialization of particular physical features or cultural markers leads society to assign stereotypes or prejudices, which in turn shape social experiences and opportunities. The social effects of racialization thus make race a meaningful and consequential category, even though at its core, race does not have a separate biological or cultural essence.

If a race exists in society, Blum argues it must be racialized because, without the process of racialization, the societal significance of race diminishes dramatically. Racialization sustains the social reality of race by embedding it into everyday interactions, legal codes, and institutional practices. It provides a mechanism through which societal structures respond to perceived differences, thus maintaining racial distinctions and hierarchies. Without racialization, the societal importance of racial categories would fade, as they would lack the social processes that give them significance. Therefore, for race to function as a meaningful social category, it must be actively racialized—imbued with social meaning through the processes of association, attribution, and institutional reinforcement.

Philosophically, this understanding challenges essentialist notions of race, instead emphasizing that race is constructed through social processes that are imbued with power dynamics and cultural values. Racialization shows how social realities often define human experiences more than biological facts, reinforcing the importance of examining societal practices and narratives to understand racial phenomena fully. This perspective also suggests that social change hinges on the de-racialization or re-racialization of social practices, which hold the potential to transform the social significance attributed to different groups.

References

• Appiah, K. A. (1992). Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. Princeton University Press.
• Blum, L. (Year). [Book title if known]. [Publisher or source].
• Smedley, A., & Smedley, B. D. (2005). Race as a Social Construcut and its Implications for Science. American Psychologist, 60(1), 16–26.
• Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial Formation in the United States. Routledge.
• Scheurich, J. J., & Young, M. D. (1997). Coloring the Field: What Race has to do with Educational Leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 33(1), 112–141.
• Winant, H. (2000). Racial Politics and the Politics of Racialization. In Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge (pp. 139-156). Temple University Press.
• Chowdhury, P. (2020). Racialization and Social Inequality: A Critical Perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 76(4), 955–968.
• Mills, C. W. (1997). The Racial Contract. Cornell University Press.
• Fraser, N. (1997). Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the 'Postsocialist' Condition. Routledge.
• Phelan, S. M., & Link, B. G. (2015). Is racism a mental health issue? The Social Science & Medicine, 122, 162–163.