As Transformações do Racismo Estrutural: entrevista com Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Abstract

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is internationally recognized as one of the leading proponents of the concept of "structural racism." Born in 1968 in Puerto Rico, he served as president of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in 2018. Currently a professor at Duke University, Bonilla-Silva has argued that the racialization of our social structures is more effective in reproducing inequalities than explicitly racist ideologies or political doctrines. In 2003, he published "Racism without Racists" (translated to Portuguese by Perspectiva in 2020), a book in which he suggests that the contemporary world experiences a "color-blind racism," wherein racial discrimination continues to operate despite widespread condemnation of racist values by various political movements. Despite the increasingly common use of the notion of structural racism, Bonilla-Silva's works remain relatively unknown in Brazil. For this reason, we conducted this interview with him in September 2023, addressing topics such as the structuring of racism in today's world, the impact of events like the brutal murder of George Floyd in the U.S., and the current challenges of anti-racism in Brazil and globally.