Historical paths of black ethnic-racial identity in Brazil

Abstract

The article deals with the historical paths of black ethnic-racial identity in Brazil. The text discusses the historical trajectory of the socio-racial relations of the black population in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries from the perspective of building a black identity. In the 19th century, the Afro-Brazilian population encountered obstacles in building its own identity. In the 20th century, there was a more accentuated struggle for the construction of a black identity. In that century, identities called Sociological Subject (HALL, 2006), Resistance and Project (CASTELLS, 1999) were configured. In the 21st century there are advances in the construction of this identity due to the previous historical struggles of the black generations. The study points out the Resistance and Project identity models. The investigation consists of a descriptive-analytical study on the types of identities that coexisted and coexist in the process of Afro-Brazilian identity construction - from the 19th to the 21st century in the perspectives of Hall (2006; 2011) and Castells (1999; 2002), Elias (1994; 2001) and Goffman (1999; 2004). The study concludes that in each historical moment the Afro-Brazilian population built a singularity of identity in the light of delimited theorists.