"Racial Formation in the United States" by Omi & Winant - Omi and Winant propose the idea of racial formation, a sociohistorical process by which the creation, transformation, and destruction of racial categories are forged. The conceptions around race are being formed and changed as society changes. Yet, race is precieved as a intrinsic, basic, and enduring characteristic of a person, that totalizes their identity. This shifts that occur in racial formation coincide with the needs of the oppressor. For example, during time of slavery in the United States, Africans were precieved of naturally being equipped for physical labor and lacking fully developed cognitive abilities that would allow them to truly understand their own suffering. This shows how the white oppressors needed labor so they created a racial identity that would justify the exploitiation. Another example, is the arrival of white settlers in the United States, subjecting the natives, the settler created a class within a class, asserting nativer famers as less than the white farmers as a fact of their race.The demands and instability of a capitalistic economy shaped the social understandings of race. Race is informed by the social, economic, and political factors of a given moment, and the social, economic, and political factors of a given moment are informed by race.