In order to delve further into the topic of racial formation it is important to explore the question of what race is.

Omi and Winant define "racial formation" as "the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings".

Most recently, "whiteness" studies has been included as a popular site of inquiry in what is a traditionally academic field for studying the racial formation of communities of color.

Professor Winant is best known for developing the theory of racial formation along with Michael Omi.

Race theory moved from theories of assimilation to the political economy to the study of racial formations.

Borrowing from Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation, he argues that whiteness is a historically powerful set of meanings that serves to either implicitly or explicitly dominate the shifting and reforming meaning of race in U.S. media.

These problems have brought about the concept of food justice which Alkon and Norgaard (2009; 289) explain is, "places access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food in the contexts of institutional racism, racial formation, and racialized geographies.

According to Douglass Hartmann: "Sport is a 'double-edged sword' not just a place (or variable) whereby racial interests and meanings are either inhibited or advanced but rather a site where racial formations are constantly-and very publicly-struggled on and over."

Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation directly confronts both ethnicity theory's premises and practices.

Nations create a process of racial formation through which women of different national and racial identities experience discrepant integration within a society, ultimately contributing to hierarchies of citizenship.