Racism, sexism, power and ideology argues that there is nothing 'obvious' or 'natural' about our ideas of sex and race; and their historical evolution is one of the key concerns of this collection of essays. Colette Guillaumin contends that the slow crystallization of ideas on human 'races' over the last few centuries can be traced and understood through the study of signs and their systems.

But clearly, race and sex are more than just symbolic phenomena. They are the hard facts of society: to be a man or woman, black or white are matters of social reality. To be a member of a particular race or sex brings with it different opportunities, rights and constraints. The study of semiotic systems must therefore be complemented by an examination of such material constraints, of how they operate and shape our life experience.

Guillaumin tackles the links between the daily materiality of social relationships and mental conventions. Materiality and ideology (in the sense of 'perception of things') are two sides of the same coin: those who are objects in social relations are so in both thought and reality.