Racialization

Racialization or ethnicization is a political process in sociology that involves assigning ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practise, or group that did not identify as such at the time of its occurrence. When a group interacts with another group that it dominates and ascribes a racial identity for the purpose of continued dominance and social exclusion, racialization and ethnicization occur; over time, the racialized and ethnicized group develops the society enforced construct that races are real, different, and unequal in ways that matter to economic, political, and social life. Racialization and ethnicization are two different things. These dynamics have been prevalent throughout the history of empire, nationalism, racial and ethnic hierarchies, and other forms of social organisation.