Abstract
Abstract Throughout their training as researchers and teachers, academics working with race relations assimilate a canonical history of the production in the field. With some variations, this production is usually organized around a narrative that begins with the reception of scientific racism in Brazil, then goes on to formulate the culturalist approach and the thesis of ‘racial democracy’ and, finally, mentions the ruptures that led to the recognition and investigation of patterns of racism and discrimination in Brazil. This article presents a synthesis of this history and then interrogates it from different angles and perspectives. To achieve this objective, it turns to interpreters of the sociology and historiography of race relations to reveal how certain theoretical and methodological reorientations in the field, along with national and international social changes, are connected to the different questions raised with regard to the phenomenon of racism in Brazil.
Highlights
During their training as researchers and teachers, the academics who work with race, racism and racial discrimination tend to absorb a canonical history of the interpretations of race relations in Brazil
It is worth recalling that, as Guimarães (1999a) warned, essentialized visions functioned for a long time as an obstacle to the comprehension of the singularities of the Brazilian – and Latin American – case. He emphasized that the construction of a research agenda on racism and racial discrimination in Brazil derived from a strong movement of anti-essentialism in the field of research on race relations
The ‘intersectional’ approach proposes that forms of oppression possess affinities, parallels and mechanisms of mutual reinforcement. This means that while, on one hand, the categories of race, gender, sexuality, national origin and so on are analytically separate, empirically they find themselves in a process of interaction and codetermination (Hill Collins, 2015)
Summary
During their training as researchers and teachers, the academics who work with race, racism and racial discrimination tend to absorb a canonical history of the interpretations of race relations in Brazil. A good general orientation involves taking the boundaries between groups as problematic and not assuming that ‘races’ exist as socially determined and cohesive groups, whose identities are mechanically recognized by the State. The emphasis shifts, from research on the supposed ‘substance’ of ethnic or racial groups to the relational analysis of the construction of boundaries and collective identities (Lamont & Molnár, 2002).
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