The fourth point is that we are not to study class, race and gender as discrete terms. Within ethnicity, race and nation, how are the variables like class, gender etc. to be accommodated and what are the dynamics of such variables criss-crossing within the general panorama of ethnicity, race and nation?

The discourses of colonialism – the cultural constructions, representations of colonialism of different ethnicities, races and nations – contributed to the formation of the nation states that were erstwhile colonies. It is important for us to remember that Cultural Studies' exploration of ethnicity, race and nation is not along the discrete lines of what ethnicity, race and nation constitute by themselves. Even as they are studied together, there are other issues like class, gender that come up and thus make formulations more complicated.

As categories, terms like ethnicity, race and nation are discursive categories because their characteristics are made through different discourses about them. We may argue that one's ethnic identity, racial identity, national identity are also matters of performance. This is because most of the cultural forms to do with ethnicity, race and nationhood are symbols that are invested with emotions of belonging to a certain group. So they are performative in that sense.