Race Relations In Brazil Research Articles

A Difusão das Comissões de Heteroidentificação nas Universidades Públicas: Instituições e Mudança Organizacional

Abstract This article draws insights from the literature on institutional isomorphism and social movements theory to explain the diffusion in Brazil of procedures for validating the self-identification of candidates for admission to federal universities through racial quotas. The diffusion of these procedures has transformed how the right to affirmative action is understood and how it has led to organizational challenges. By analyzing documents and interviews, this article identifies the coercive, mimetic, and normative mechanisms at play. It shows that they derived from interactions among Black university students, staff, faculty members, and organizations of the black movement and state agencies, all engaged in protecting racial affirmative action. Implications for studying change in Brazil’s higher education and race relations are also discussed. Higher education and race relations in Brazil are also discussed.

Identities in Flux. Race, Migration, and Citizenship in Brazil by Niyi Afolabi

Reviewed by: Identities in Flux. Race, Migration, and Citizenship in Brazil by Niyi Afolabi Wesley Costa de Moraes Afolabi, Niyi. Identities in Flux. Race, Migration, and Citizenship in Brazil. SUNY P, 2021. 284 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4384-8250-7. The history of race relations in Brazil is distinctive: the country was the main destination of African slaves in the Americas and the last one in the region to abolish slavery in 1888. It also crafted the longstanding belief that racial and cultural miscegenation led to the creation of a truly racism-free society. Quite understandably, to this day the enduring reality of deprivation and violence affecting people of darker skin in Brazil is hard to digest and even harder to change. Niyi Afolabi notes that the scholarly production scrutinizing this reality has mostly perceived the condition of Afro Brazilians as static, or denoting resignment. Indeed, evidence demonstrates that they remain in the destitute social location assigned to them by a highly stratified society. Nevertheless, Afro-Brazilians have used multiple strategies to defy such rigid patterns of social and geographical immobility. The author explores some Afro-Brazilian icons to reveal their frantic struggle for movement in the social landscape. Within a self-misleading color-blind national ideology, regarding these icons as static, or yielding, diminishes their symbolic importance. Pragmatic education should afford a less myopic understanding of Afro Brazilian history towards debunking the "mythical racial paradise" that is Brazil (232). Afolabi initially lays the historical groundwork of the sociocultural, political and economic formation of Brazil. The conceptualization of Brazil as racially harmonious begins with the Portuguese promoting themselves as colonizers with a special disposition to mix with other races. It is in everyday realities that, up to this date, Afro Brazilians experience rife racism and how it perpetuates their sacrifices for the benefit of the whiter classes. Reflecting the centuries-long harm done, denying an open debate on race relations crystalized the acceptance of inferiority by many Afro Brazilians. It is this passivity that ultimately the author sets out to redress by replacing static conformism with intense movement —a rebellious flux. Following a chronological order, chapter 2 presents the first icon: Zumbi dos Palmares, the leader of a 17th century settlement of runaway slaves whose death is now commemorated as a national holiday. Zumbi has been regarded both as hero and villain, and it is precisely this realm of contradictions that the author explores in its fluidity. As Zumbi strived to create a society where all were equal, his principles were and are easily incorporated into discourses preaching miscegenation. The stark [End Page 203] contradiction is that Zumbi was considered a threat and later killed, while the runaway community was eventually destroyed by successive military invasions. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the only female Afro Brazilian in the book, Xica da Silva, who lived for 15 years with a Caucasian diamond contractor in an out-ofwedlock relationship that bore thirteen children. Xica's life is hugely popular, with novels, soap operas and movies telling the story of how this 18th-century scandalous relationship allowed her to gain independence and, illustrating Afolabi's sense of identities in flux, some social power, although with blatant restrictions. Her life is surrounded by controversies and myth, and the author contends that the focus on her sexuality fails to acknowledge her as a true heroine in the context of Afro Brazilian migrating identities, of which particularly her mixed-race children would benefit. In chapter 4, Afolabi explores the character of Pedro Archanjo in Tenda dos milagres, a novel written by Jorge Amado. A fervid advocate of Afro Brazilian culture, Amado was born and raised in the cradle of African presence and influence in Brazil: the state of Bahia. Archanjo is based on real-life Manuel Querino, who is considered the very first Afro Brazilian historian. Querino extensively documented the African customs and contributions, challenging the Eurocentric Brazilian history and decoding the migrating identities between Africa and Brazil. As Afolabi points out, Querino's work is yet to be fully recognized, and Amado's novel is a noteworthy endeavor in that direction. In chapter 5, the author examines the Brazilian version of the Greek myth of...

RE-ORI-ENTAR: BEATRIZ NASCIMENTO E MÃE BEATA DE YEMONJÁ, HISTORIADORAS AFRO-ATLÂNTICAS

This essay aims to reflect on an afroreferenced writing of Brazilian history, based on Afro-Atlantic narratives, stressing and analysing perspectives proposed by two Afro-Brazilian intellectuals: Mãe Beata de Yemonjá and Beatriz Nascimento. For this, the discussions about blackness, racism and aphrodiasporic inheritances in Brazil will be taken as references, such as carried out by them, as well as their trajectories of anti-racist/anti-sexist militancy and affirmation of black African identity. From this perspective, we defend the importance of re-ori-enting the debate about the history of race relations in Brazil and criticizing the hegemonic perspectives of Brazilian historiography, essential to reaffirm the commitment to an anti-racist/anti-sexist/anti-classist education.

AS MARCAS DA COLONIALIDADE: RAÇA E RACISMO NA PRODUÇÃO DO PENSAMENTO GEOGRÁFICO

The text on screen aims to situate the categories of race, racism and race relations within the theoretical matrix of Geography. Our intention is to propose some possibilities for the interpretation of race relations in Brazil from a geographic analysis. We are convinced that the ethnic-racial issue is one of the many possible themes to be covered by the analytical leather of geographic science, mainly because it is possible to detect the record of this debate in the vast literature produced throughout the historical process of formation of geographical thought in particular in Geography literature produced during much of the 20th century in Brazil and worldwide.

FEMINISMO NEGRO NO BRASIL E LUTA POR RECONHECIMENTO: UM DIÁLOGO COM A TEORIA DA JUSTIÇA DE NANCY FRASER

Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar o processo de invisibilidade social sofrido pela mulher negra à luz da teoria crítica do reconhecimento de Nancy Fraser. O artigo apresenta a seguinte problemática: De que forma as políticas de redistribuição e de reconhecimento, propostas por Nancy Fraser contribuem para a luta do movimento feminista negro, no intuito de afirmar as mulheres negras como sujeito identitário e político, possibilitando a sua participação social paritária e, assim, promover um novo parâmetro normativo de justiça? A hipótese de trabalho está baseada na concepção de que, tanto o estudo das relações raciais no Brasil, como as teorias feministas tradicionais ignoram as demandas das mulheres negras. O estudo é desenvolvido em três partes: a) compreender a teoria das relações raciais no Brasil e o processo histórico da luta antirracista; b) entender a necessidade das mulheres negras em buscar um pensamento feminista negro; c) articular os estudos raciais e feministas com a teoria da justiça de Nancy Fraser. O método é dedutivo, envolvendo pesquisa bibliográfica e procedimento monográfico.

The Bolsonaro Election, Antiblackness, and Changing Race Relations in Brazil

AbstractWe apply the concept of antiblackness and a Deleuzian approach to sociopolitical events to analyze Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 election in Brazil. Historically, Brazilians turned from overt expressions of antiblackness to subtler forms of racial prejudice, what Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (1956) called the “cordial man” who practiced a “gentlemanly” form of white supremacy. Recently, however, cordial racism has eroded in favor of more virulent and explosive manifestations of antiblackness that fueled the sociopolitical climate that enabled Bolsonaro's rise to power. We examine the antiblack backlash against race‐conscious laws and policies implemented during the Workers’ Party era (2002–16), showing a gradual shift toward more overt expressions of antiblackness that Bolsonaro wielded to political effect in his 2018 campaign. [affirmative action, blackness, Bolsonaro, Brazil, race]

Racial Education in Brazilian Children´S Literature Teaching

This paper discusses racial relations in teaching of children´s and young literature in Brazil. Based on the laws 10.639/2003 and 11.645/2008, which require that Brazilian schools teach the history and culture of Afro-Brazilians and Native Nations, we seek to problematize the applied research project From Reader To Reader, considering the effectiveness of the cited laws and the receiving of the African and Afro-Brazilian literary books brought together in Kit Afro: an affirmative policy of democratization of the access to literary production for diversity implemented by the Municipal Teaching Network of Belo Horizonte. Our discussions are guided by studies about race relations in Brazil (GOMES, 2012), teaching of literature (OLIVEIRA, 2015) and transcultural and decolonial pedagogy (HOPENHAY, 2009; WALSH, 2017).

Exu is not Satan – the dialogics of memory and resistance among Afro-Brazilians

ABSTRACTIn 2000s Brazil, an unprecedented number of Brazilian afrodescendentes (Afro-Descendants) have been mobilizing to secure rights and resources for the Brazilian black population. From carnival parading in ‘cultural’ groups to electoral campaigning, from consciousness-raising education to antiracist community outreach, black activists have been aggressively taking a critical stance toward the discursive fabric of Brazilian race relations and national identity. Placing examples of their discursive struggles over Afro-Brazilian history and culture under the lens of intertextual and heteroglossic relations, I illustrate black activists’ efforts to dispute what they see as misconceptions about black people and blackness that have found their way into the dominant narrative conceptions of Brazilian society. In doing so, I argue, they are accomplishing something of broader social significance: They are revising not only the history and collective memory of race relations in Brazil but blackness itself.

BRAZILIAN RACE RELATIONS, FRENCH SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, AND AFRICAN DECOLONIZATION: A TRANSATLANTIC HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF MISCEGENATION

AbstractThis article analyzes how debates concerning Brazilian race relations, miscegenation, and racial democracy unfolded in France in the 1950s. During those years, Gilberto Freyre and those critical of him emerged in French social scientific discourse, offering distinct visions concerning race, culture, and the possibility of harmonious coexistence in a world structured by racial, social, and colonial inequalities. Certain French social scientists such as Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel embraced Freyre's vision as a possible source for racial and cultural mixing, whereas others, especially Alfred Métraux and Florestan Fernandes, directly criticized his work. Roger Bastide mediated between the two, translating Freyre's Casa-Grande & Senzala and coauthoring a UNESCO-based study on blacks and whites in São Paulo that largely repudiated Freyre's claims. I argue that in a period in which decolonization was already underway, Freyre piqued the interest of French social scientists looking to overcome the growing antagonism between colonizer and colonized, even if other models of cultural integration and autonomy contested the validity of Brazil's so-called racial democracy.

Relações raciais no Brasil: colonialidade, dependência e diáspora

Resumo: Este artigo discute as relações raciais no Brasil, numa perspectiva crítica ao conhecido equívoco teórico de que o racismo é meramente um subproduto das desigualdades de classe. Discute também a teoria marxista da dependência e a decolonialidade, de modo que o exercício de aproximação dessas teorias demonstrou que a TMD e a decolonialidade são ferramentas teóricas convergentes, dotadas de grande relevância para se compreender e intervir na realidade brasileira de desigualdade social e racial.

Democratizing the access to college education: Brazilian race/color classification in affirmative action’s debate

Abstract One of the principal aspects to develop affirmative action in Brazil comprises how to define target population, which includes uses and perceptions of ethnic/racial/color categories. The present paper has the main objective of bringing the analysis about IBGE’s2 race/color classifications contribute to the design of affirmative action in Brazil using categories historically constructed with the endorsement of official statistics. The color issues in the Brazilian Census and the experiences, including the racial designation as an open response, has been studied since 1872, and it is noted that there are two dimensions to be observed in the affirmative action debate: a structural and other cultural involving race/color classifications in Brazil. The statistics are fundamental to build the best evidence in shaping public policy. On the other hand, we must recognize ethnic and racial identities as cultural phenomena that are susceptible to change, which drives us to continue the discussion, trying to capture the meaning of these transformations. The affirmative action debate may not disqualify any of these approaches to knowledge about race relations in Brazil.

Corrigendum

Silva GM (2016) After racial democracy: Contemporary puzzles in race relations in Brazil, Latin America and beyond from a boundaries perspective. Current Sociology 64(5): 794-812. DOI: 10.1177/0011392115590488 The author would like to draw attention to the following correction. On p.802 of this article, where it is written: “[…] scholars who want to underplay the importance of race in Brazil tend to see this as evidence that race is not as central, or at least not a factor of discrimination for a large percentage of non-whites (Fry, 2005)” This section should read: “[…] scholars who emphasize the convergence of opinions tend to see this as evidence of a more successful policy of cultural integration that illustrates understandings of race as less essentialized (Fry, 2005)”. This correction does not change the main arguments made in the article.

As Elites de Cor: Thales de Azevedo e o Projeto UNESCO de Relações Raciais no Brasil

Este artigo tem por objetivo abordar a participação de Thales de Azevedo no ciclo de pesquisas sobre as relações raciais no Brasil, patrocinado pela UNES- CO no início da década de 1950, e, sobretudo, abordar sua investigação que resultou no livro As Elites de Cor: um estudo de ascensão social. Em seu estu- do, o processo de modernização da sociedade baiana, os desafios à tradição e a dinâmica da mobilidade social são concebidos como potenciais geradores de conflito racial. Esses resultados revelam uma densa pesquisa socioantro- pológica das relações entre negros, mulatos e brancos em Salvador, ainda que, por vezes, coloquem em tensão as linhas interpretativas mais gerais de seu trabalho sobre a alegada convivência racial harmônica. Inicialmente o artigo versa sobre a trajetória de Thales de Azevedo da medicina social à antropolo- gia. A segunda parte do texto se atém ao contexto de produção da investigação e a análise de “As Elites de Cor”. Diferente da visão comumente aceita de que a intenção do projeto UNESCO de relações raciais era demonstrar que o Bra- sil representava uma espécie de paraíso racial, o estudo socioantropológico de Thales de Azevedo evidencia que, desde o início do ciclo de pesquisas da UNESCO, houve um interesse da instituição em abordar as desigualdades sociorraciais no Brasil. A investigação da dinâmica da ascensão social das pessoas de cor foi um importante desafio assumido pela agência internacional para tornar inteligíveis as assimetrias raciais.

A FORMAÇÃO DISCURSIVA PÓS-COLONIAL EM ALBERTO GUERREIRO RAMOS

Race relations scholars in Brazil have devoted energy to analyzes of the contribution of black precursors, giving voice to those who have paved the way to consolidate the participation of blacks in academic debate and to refine it by expanding others voices. Thus, I approach the contribution of the black sociologist Alberto Guerreiro Ramos in the studies of what he called racial hierarchies. The idea is to demonstrate how he contributed in terms of intellectual, political and personal action for the existence of an authentic (non-Eurocentric) understanding of race relations in Brazil. I make use of the contribution of important interpreters of the thought of Guerreiro Ramos, demonstrating its approximate character of the current post-colonialism, while debating the (im)possibility of a black thought in our author's studies. &nbsp

‘A milder type of bondage’: Brazilian slavery and race relations in the eyes of American abolitionists, 1812–1888

ABSTRACTThis article examines how American abolitionists educated themselves about Brazilian slavery and race relations. Beginning with the Iberian–American Revolutions and ending with James Redpath’s 1867 influential exposé on Brazil, this article explores how American abolitionists viewed Brazil and how their understandings about Brazilian slavery and race relations changed over the course of the nineteenth century. These changes were not a progressive march by abolitionists toward a deeper and better understanding of Brazil but, instead, reflect how antislavery writers emphasized various aspects of Brazilian slavery and culture at different periods in order to further their own ideological and political agendas. At the same time, these agendas led abolitionists to pioneer some of the earliest methods for the comparative study of slavery on a global scale.

A educação para as relações étnico-raciais e os estudos sobre racismo no Brasil

Este artigo tem como objetivo fazer a revisão bibliográfica de alguns dos estudos clássicos sobre as relações raciais no Brasil. A revisão engloba o período do início dos anos 30 do século XX até os trabalhos mais recentes, que têm em comum o fato de caracterizarem a discriminação racial como fator importante para a manutenção das desigualdades raciais, reunindo argumentos que fundamentam as reflexões quanto à necessidade da adoção de políticas de ação afirmativa no Brasil, bem como os argumentos que consideram que a pobreza e a desigualdade são os fatores principais que contribuem para a marginalização do negro. Passar a limpo tais teorias e conceitos constitui contribuição significativa para dar efetividade às Diretrizes curriculares nacionais para a educação das relações étnico-raciais e para o ensino de história e cultura afro-brasileira e africana.

After racial democracy: Contemporary puzzles in race relations in Brazil, Latin America and beyond from a boundaries perspective

This article uses the boundaries theoretical framework to analyse Brazilian race relations. The author argues that the apparent paradox of race relations in Brazil and in parts of Latin America, i.e. the persistency of racial inequality without blatant racial conflict, can be better understood as the coexistence of strong social boundaries and weak symbolic boundaries between racial categories. Not only does the boundaries literature allow us to understand race relations in Brazil through a different lens, but the Brazilian case can also contribute to further develop this theoretical framework. Differently from most cases discussed by the boundaries literature where strong symbolic boundaries lead to strong social boundaries, in Brazil weak symbolic boundaries have played a key role in the reproduction and transformation of strong social boundaries between blacks and whites. Taking into account the different ways these two types of boundaries interact – social and symbolic – is a key challenge for the comparative literature on race relations. In order to develop the argument the author draws on recent studies about Brazil to discuss two traditional issues in the race relations literature in Latin America and beyond: the measurement of racial discrimination and the consequences of racially mixed identification for debates on racial inequality.

The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil

The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil

Affirmative Action: An Overview of the History of Resistance, Struggle and Achievements of the Black Population in the Brazilian Context

This article seeks to present a reflection on affirmative actions that are characterized as public policies aimed at minority groups. On this perspective, we will make a cutting in the racial inequalities between blacks and whites in the Brazilian context, for the disparities between these groups are not marked only by social class, but also by the ambiguous racism that prevails in the country. Thereby, we seek to make the complaint of racial inequality in Brazil, as well as the announcement of answers achieved by the struggle of the black population, personified on the black movement and in actions in favor of black men and women who historically lived on the margins of society. In this sense, we organized the paper into three parts, plus the introduction and closing remarks. First, we present a brief historical and social context of race relations in Brazil. Then, we speak of about the steps and achievements of the black movement in the country. Finally, we highlight the affirmative action adopted for the benefit of black people, especially in the educational field, like the quota system in universities.

Medindo o preconceito racial no Brasil: Aniela Ginsberg e o estudo das atitudes raciais

Este artigo aborda um conjunto de trabalhos realizados por Ginsberg sobre as relações étnico-raciais no Brasil. Procuro demonstrar que o processo de inflexão da visão de Ginsberg centrado inicialmente em investigações de natureza comportamental passa gradativamente a mobilizar argumentos socioantropológicos para o entendimento das assimetrias raciais. Argumento que tal mudança decorreu sobretudo da influência dos estudos do psicólogo social e antropólogo Otto Klineberg, da Universidade de Columbia, ex-orientando de Franz Boas, professor do Departamento de Psicologia da USP entre 1945 e 1947, e severo crítico dos testes de inteligência e do valor heurístico do conceito de raça.