Critical Race Theory, Marxism, and the Problem of Ideology

Critical race theories of ideology, surprisingly, replicate key tensions in early Marxist thought. Following a selective review of several Marxist theorists, this article examines critical race conceptions of racial ideology within the influential work of Charles W. Mills and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, probing three related problem areas: an "expressive" theory of society, the correspondence of ideologies to racial groups, and an overreliance on standpoint implications. In response, the author develops a heterodox, nonreductive Marxist theory in which racial ideologies, although historically durable, are seen as contingent, relatively autonomous constructs that take shape unevenly within capitalist societies, do not correspond to fixed social groups, and may or may not facilitate the reproduction of capitalism. Developing a less deterministic theory of the relation between social structure, group identity, and racist belief opens up more generative approaches to the problem of racial ideology.