Mechanisms and mechanics of racial hierarchy: focusing on the “How” of racism

In recent years, there have been robust efforts to advance conceptualizations of racial hierarchies. This new theoretical and empirical scholarship has generated debate about the why and how of racism. In this special issue, authors are responding to our call for more attention, in particular, to the “how” questions. As Bonilla-Silva asserts in his contribution in this special issue, without this, “structural theories of racism have a tinge of functionalism and mystery.” Thus, we argue for more specificity in naming the mechanisms that produce hierarchies and in examining as well as explaining the role of the mechanics (the actors) who make the system work and, in the process, become the living tissue that forms the structure. The goal is that by expanding and clarifying the constitutive practices that make the structure, the structure will become legible and real rather than remaining ethereal and mysterious.