Post-racial Ideology, Emergent Multiculturalisms, and the Contemporary Conjuncture of Racial Politics in Brazil

Abstract

The current conjuncture of the politics of race in Brazil presents an uneven, contested shift from a paradigm of mixture and racial democracy to one involving the recognition of difference, multiculturalism, and ethno-racial policy. While the majority of Brazilians acknowledge that racism is a societal issue and agree that policies are necessary to address it, a post-racial ideology that negates the structural significance of race remains strong in corridors of power and policy implementation. The ongoing power of mixture and racial democracy as post-racial ideologies lie in their continued centrality to modes of thought and action that privilege the promise of getting beyond race to the detriment of addressing hierarchies, practices, and structural inequalities shaped through racial difference. Race and racism continue to be difficult topics in a society that long considered itself relatively free of such divisions and the privileges and disadvantages they bring to those who are lighter and darker skinned.