“Race-making can also be understood as a process of ‘othering’” (Omi and Winant 2015; 105). Omi and Winant (2015) categorize race as a master category that can shape history, polity, economic structure, and the culture of the United States. Race has helped to shape our understanding of work, labor, and master while helping to fundamentally change the way we organize society through social stratification. Omi and Winant (2015) base the idea of race within the United States on the theory of racial formation theory. As previously mentioned the United States and other majority-white nations have taken the idea of race and used it to create the racial caste system. The idea of racial formation helps to give a base to the language used by politicians as well as all citizens. I base my analysis of inaugural speeches partially on racial formation theory to understand how presidents specifically use their platform to speak about race.

Another theory that has become important and relevant over the past decades has been the New Jim Crow. Understood through Michelle Alexander, we see the New Jim Crow as a way in which the black community has continued to experience extreme levels of discrimination. One point that she notes is similar to the racial formation theory, understanding race through the lens where white people created race to acknowledge and accept the fact that they own slaves (Alexander 2010). An example that many acknowledge is part of the racial caste system is the War on Drugs. Started under Reagan there was an increase in low-level drug offenses, which many understand to have been a way to target black and brown communities (Alexander 2010). Looking at the data behind incarceration rates we see an overrepresentation of black and brown communities in jail for low-level drug offenses (The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons | The Sentencing Project, 2021). The same arrests would not be made if people were not black. The way in which this system has affected black and brown communities helps to continue the incarceration system and people trying to get back into society.