Race is not, as I have often been reminded while working on this project, a system of classification: it is a system of oppression. There has never been, and I can't imagine how there could ever be, a way of classifying the peoples of the world that isn't also a way of controlling people.

We have disagreements as to what race does and ought to mean, but we have a remarkable consensus on what it is, without any ability to define it technically.

When you've learned to both see and not see the resemblance, then you see the uniqueness.

Seeing race is always about discriminating, a discerning, trained eye recognizing the "essential" or defining characteristic in the individual that confers racial categorization.