For those who are interested in discussing the centrality of race and
racism to world systems and analysis, and whether racism is amenable to
world systems analysis, here are are two references by Wallerstein which
may be interesting.
1. "Class Formation in the Capitalist World-Economy", Politics and
Society, 5, 3, 1975, 367-75.
2. Class and Status in Contemporary Africa", in Gutkind and Waterman
ed., African Social Studies, Heinemann, London, 1977.
Wallerstein argues that problems in the analysis of what he terms
"ethno-nations" or status groups arise because of adopting the nation
state rather than the world-system as the unit of analysis. For him
race, ethnicity, nationality etc. are "phenomena of the world-economy".
The meaning of ethnic or racial consciousness is different in the core
and peripheral areas since they have different class positions wherever
they are located. Ethnicity and race become important when groups try to
influence the state to distort the working of the world market in their
favour. Race for Wallerstein is an "international status group category"
which assists in the maintenance of the "international class structure".
In making a basic distinction between international and national status
groups, Wallerstein also distinguishes between whites and non-whites;
white refers to the advanced capitalist nations while non-white refers
to the "proletarian nations; there is only one white race, while there
are a number of non-whites.
D.Parthasarathy
Socioeconomics and Politics Division
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
Patancheru, India.
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