Michael Omi and Howard Winant's arguments from “Racial Formations” concern how race is socially constructed and displayed in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as media, school, politics, history, family, and economics create the racial structure of society. In the Caucasus, the media, family, and school are forces that create race by determining how one should conform to the social norms of different racial groups. In the Caucasus, the theme of "racial etiquette" plays an important role in the society Birdie lives in and this demonstrates Omi and Winant's statement about how race is socially constructed (Omi and Winant 4). For example, "rules shaped by our perceptions of race in a globally racial society determine 'self-presentation, status distinction, and appropriate modes of conduct'" (Omi and Winant 4). In this statement, Omi and Winant meant that people tend to make rules to categorize a racial group based on their physical characteristics and ignoring their true "race". An example from the Caucasus that demonstrates Omi and Winant's thesis is: “Who is that Rican? I thought this was supposed to be a black school” (Senna 43). This quote from Caucasus shows how people make judgments about Birdie because of her skin tone, and in school, environmental rules are often created through one's perception; Birdie is seen as "white" and her sister is seen as "black", people create such rules to group one based on skin tone because that's what they know so they assimilate races based on physical appearance. Furthermore, Omi and Winant state, “Everyone leaves…half of the paper…portrays the races and how they would behave and society may embrace the idea and conform to it. Additionally, family today plays a huge role in racial identity because someone may look like a specific race but may be mixed with other races. Additionally, an environment such as school can change a person's racial identity because the person may choose to be friends with a group of specific races and would have to change the way they dress or speak to fit in. Today's society demonstrates a lot that Omi and Winant's ideas about how race is socially constructed and is similar to the way society is constructed in Caucasia. Works Cited Omi, Michal and Winant, Howard. "Racial formations". Racial formation in the United States: 1960s to 1990s. Second ed. New York: Routledge, 1994. 3-9. Print.Senna, Danzy. Caucasus. New York: Riverhead, 1999. Print.