Racial Prejudice and Stigma of Disease in the Work of Oracy Nogueira

Abstract

As a sociologist with a broad anthropological background, Oracy Nogueira (1917–1996) stands out for his groundbreaking contributions to the study of social discrimination arising from the experience of disease (tuberculosis in Brazil) or from relations between Black and White populations in Brazil and the United States. This chapter examines these contributions. Vozes de Campos de Jordão: Experiências sociais e psíquicas do tuberculoso no estado de São Paulo (Voices from Campos de Jordão: Social and Psychic Experiences of Tuberculosis Patients in the State of São Paulo) is the result of a thesis defended in 1945. It reveals the sociocultural dimensions of the disease, focusing on the subjects’ journey from diagnosis to the desired cure, including hospital segregation, which in the 1940s was part of the clinical treatment. A study of stigma avant la lettre. His research of race relations comprises a trilogy of writings elaborated between 1942 and 1955. “Atitude desfavorável de alguns anunciantes de São Paulo em relação aos empregados de cor” (Unfavorable Attitudes of Some São Paulo Advertisers toward Colored Employees), written in 1942, reveals the existence in São Paulo of a racial prejudice whose expression differed from the North American and South African expressions, as well as social class prejudice. Preconceito de marca: As relações raciais em Itapetininga (Trait Prejudice: Race Relations in Itapetininga) was a result of a research project on race relations in Brazil sponsored by UNESCO, conducted between 1951 and 1952. In that book, he formulates the concept of “trait prejudice” to characterize the subtle and insidious dynamics of Brazilian racism. “Preconceito racial de marca e preconceito racial de origem” (Racial Trait Prejudice and Racial Origin Prejudice), written in 1954, is a comparative study of the systems of race relations in Brazil and in the United States, as present in the period 1940–1950. The comparison is based on 12 topics that elucidate the different dynamics, ideologies, and behaviors observed in both cases. For Nogueira, elucidating the characteristic dynamics of each form of racism contributed to define more adequate strategies to combat them. His lucid formulations are an invitation to develop comprehensive approaches to the various forms of social prejudice.