Hierarchy, Racial

Races are categories of human groups that loosely relate to phenotype. Humans are assigned to racial categories by onlookers who draw upon some racial common sense that describes the criteria for assignment, and also ranks the categories hierarchically. Racial hierarchy exists in order to afford the members of each race certain privileges or certain demerits—this inequality is the very definition of racism, which is structural as well as interpersonal. The logic of racial hierarchy is ensconced in a racial politics and a culture that dictate behaviors expected of the members of racial categories of humans and establish appropriate boundaries for interracial encounters and sanctions for violators of the racial order. Racial paradigms are the organizational structure for the set of specific racial practices and logics (racial categories, racial hierarchies, racial politics and common sense, and racial sanction) that operate in a given time and place.