Also known as: race formation, production of race
Last updated: April 23, 2026
The concept matters because it keeps race tied to process rather than essence. The Slave Ship: A Human History argues that the voyage did not merely move already fixed groups across the Atlantic. It participated in creating the terms through which labor, coercion, and difference would later be organized.
formation
His narrative documents the experience of becoming Black in the Atlantic world — the process by which an Igbo person was transformed into an Atlantic racial subject through enslavement.
Atlantic Slave Trade
Racial Categories
Slave Ship
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"Race Formation." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/race-formation. Accessed 2026-05-05.