It was not an idea that was easily grasped by the class, so with the help of a diagram you broke it down for us. After reading the Omi and Winant piece and with the help of your diagram it is an idea that I was able to have a better understanding of. With your help and that of Omi and Winant, I understand it means that through the law and the interpretation of the law racial formation is a social and flexible means dependent on history which is used to look at race as a socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic and political forces. Doesn't necessarily sound like an idea that could be enforced by the subjugated group of people to me. To take it a step further, just this definition in its entirety shows how the dominant group defines my two daughters or any other minority for that matter.
Where did all of this begin? The defining of race is a modern concept that shaped itself during the Age of Enlightenment where Democracy began to form its roots. All of the ideas of racial formation and white privilege began to come to the forefront during the timeframe of the French, American and Scientific Revolutions. The ideas of race, modernity, science and democracy all seem to have melded together quite nicely. The common denominator of all of these ideas is that of the people who founded them; mainly white European and aristocratic in nature. The aristocratic part is the most interesting part of my description of where these ideas were formulated. White privilege to me was never supposed to be an all encompassing idea that all whites were superior to others, but rather just the aristocrats enjoying the privileges. Over the course of time we have seen how groups that were formerly subjugated themselves redefine themselves as white so as to reap the benefits of white privilege and make themselves feel superior to the newer subjugated groups.
