Exploding the Myth of Racial Harmony: The Afro-Brazilian Female Experience (original) (raw)
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Racial Paradise or Run-Around? Afro-North American Views of Race Relations in Brazil
American Studies, 1990
North American students of slavery and race relations have long used comparative approaches to examine the troubling phenomena of racial discrimination and violence in a society committed to democratic processes and equality. Implicit in these studies is the idea that understanding gained through a comparative perspective will facilitate action to reduce the gap between the ideals and the reality of North American life. Two societies in particular have been studied: South Africa and Brazil. 1 While the example of South Africa has provided insight into aspects of North American culture deplored by most Americans, the example of Brazil has traditionally offered a positive model, one worthy of emulation. Although people of African descent constitute a minority of the population, more Africans were brought to Brazil as slaves, slavery lasted longer, and today more black and brown people reside there than in any other Western Hemisphere nation. 2 Despite the heritage of slavery, Brazil has traditionally been perceived by North Americans and white Brazilians as a social or racial democracy. According to the myth of the racial paradise, slavery was relatively mild in Brazil, relations between masters and bondsmen were softened by extensive miscegenation, slavery was ended without bloodshed, and since abolition in 1888, skin color has played little if any part in social stratification since. 3 If there are relatively few dark-skinned Brazilians at the higher levels of society, it simply reflects disadvantages rooted in slavery. Above all, one finds no tradition of racial violence or of Jim Crow. While the image of Brazil as a social democracy is still common in North America and even more so in Brazil, it has been seriously challenged since the end of World War II. In the 1950s UNESCO sponsored a thorough re-examination of Brazilian race relations by international teams of scholars. Though such
2010
This paper examines the Afro-Brazilian afoxé as a form of cultural struggle that critically contests narratives and practices that reproduce racial inequality in contemporary Brazil. Through their afoxé in the interior of São Paulo, the Orùnmilá Cultural Center mobilizes Afro-Brazilian knowledge and cultural practices to challenge culturalist treatments of Afro-Brazilian “difference” in the management and representation of carnaval. I explore how such treatments reflect broader state-orchestrated attempts to undermine black anti-racism and the implementation of substantive policies to address racial inequality in various spheres, including education and culture. The afoxé and the Orùnmilá Center's broader work constitute an important, contemporary means through which black organizations in Brazil make visible and vocal public claims for representation and self-determination. Such work pushes policy-makers and academics to reinterpret the terms of black inclusion vis-à-vis subaltern or “other” cultures, historical experiences, perspectives, and participation in societal transformation.
From Racial Mixture to Black Nation: Racialising Discourses in Brazil's African Affairs
The article links reflections about Brazilian race relations with institu- tional transnational dialogues between Brazil and ‘Africa’. I point out that although racial/cultural mixture and the ‘brown’ census category have traditionally reflected much of national identity in Brazil, Brazil today is increasingly spelling out its blackness, both on the national and international scenes. I highlight that, not by coincidence, this fact is hap- pening at a historical moment when programmes of ‘black’ affirmative action and other differential politics in favour of Afro-descendants are taking off in the country, and also at a time when Brazil is expanding its geopolitical and economic interests in Africa.
Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture
New Sociological Perspectives, 2021
This is a translation of Racismo e Sexismo na Cultura Brasileira, an oral presentation given at the meeting of the Working Group "Themes and Problems of the Black Population in Brazil", at the IV Annual Meeting of the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Social Sciences (ANPOCS), Rio de Janeiro, 31 October 1980. It was later transcribed and originally published in the first issue of the collection Ciências Sociais Hoje, p. 223-244, in 1984, organized and published by the same association. Using political-cultural categories and concepts, such as Amefricanity, Pretoguês, Brazilian cultural neurosis and myth of racial democracy, Lélia Gonzalez, from an intersectional perspective, develops on the dynamics and specificities of racial relations in Brazil and the country's social and cultural formation, marked by racism and colonization. As a precursor of Afro-Latin American Feminism, the author analyzes the social and subjective condition of the Afro-Brazilian population, more specifically the material and symbolic bases of the oppression and exploitation of Black women, impacted by the double phenomenon of racism and sexism, and their role in resisting the pressures of erasing Brazil's African roots.
Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil examines Black Brazilian political struggle and the predicaments it faces in a time characterized by the increasing institutionalization of ethno-racial policies and black participation in policy orchestration. Greater public debate and policy attention to racial inequality suggests the attenuation of racial democracy and positive miscegenation as hegemonic ideologies of the Brazilian nation-state. However, the colorblind and post-racial logics of mixture and racial democracy, especially the denial and/or minimization of racism as a problem, maintain a strong grip on public thinking, social action, and institutional practices. Through a focus on the epistemic dimensions of black struggles and the anti-racist pluri-cultural efforts that have been put into action by activists, scholars, and organizations over the past decade, Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa analyzes the ways in which these politics negotiate as well as seek to go beyond the delimited understandings of racial difference, belonging, and citizenship that shape the contemporary politics of inclusion. Table of Contents: Introduction: Black Cultural Politics and Decoloniality without Guarantees 1 (PDF available for download) 1 Post-racial Ideology, Emergent Multiculturalisms, and the Contemporary Conjuncture of Racial Politics in Brazil 23 2 The Difference Orùnmilá Makes: Ancestralidade and the Past as Project 45 3 Afoxé Omó Orùnmilá: History, Culture, and Politics in Movement 67 4 Hip-Hop and the Contemporary Politics of Ancestralidade 89 5 The Struggle to Decolonize Knowledge and Pedagogy 113 6 Contested Inclusions: Education Reforms and the Hyperconsciousness/Negation of Race 135 7 Educator Experiences with Anti-racist Pluriculturalismo 157 Conclusion: The Challenges of the Decolonial in Practice 181 Notes 187 Bibliography 205 Index 221
Racism and Black Activism in Brazil: a literary and historical review
Brasilianas, 2019
This presents a review of the history and literature on racism and black activism in Brazil. It is divided into two parts: the first is focused on the way concepts such as racism and anti-racism were explored in the Brazilian academy, the emergence of the racial democracy thesis and its critics, and academic militance. The second follows the development of black activism in Brazil since the proclamation of the Republic (1889) until today, including two periods of authoritarian government. The literature in the field suggests there were three phases of black activism in Brazil. We argue that it is important to consider the role of police violence during the last phase of the black protest. We analyzed documents in which the Unified Black Movement (MNU, in Portuguese), the main organization of the period, mobilized around the agenda of police violence. Resumo Este artigo pretende apresentar uma revisão histórica e bibliográfica do racismo e do ativismo negro no Brasil. O trabalho está dividido em duas partes: a primeira é focada na maneira como os conceitos de racismo e anti-racismo foram explorados na academia brasileira, o surgimento da tese da democracia racial e seus críticos e a militância acadêmica. O segundo segue o desenvolvimento do ativismo negro no Brasil desde a proclamação da República (1889) até hoje, incluindo dois períodos de governo autoritário. A literatura no campo sugere a existência de três fases do ativismo negro no Brasil. Nós propomos pensar qual foi lugar da violência policial na última fase do protesto negro. Analisamos alguns documentos em que o Movimento Negro Unificado, principal organização do período, se mobilizou em torno da pauta da violência policial.