Graziella Moraes Silva

The multiple dimensions of racial mixture in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: from whitening to Brazilian negritude

Abstract The notion that racial mixture is a central feature of Latin American societies has been interpreted in different, if not strictly opposite, ways. On the one hand, scholars have presented it as evidence of weaker racial boundaries. On the other, it has been denounced as an expression of the illusion of harmonic racial relations. Relying on 160 interviews with black Brazilians, we argue that the valorization of racial mixture is an important response to stigmatization, but one that has multiple dimensions and different consequences for the maintenance of racial boundaries. We map out these different dimensions – namely, ‘whitening’, ‘Brazilian negritude’, ‘national identification’ and ‘non-essentialist racialism’ – and discuss how these dimensions are combined in different ways by our interviewees according to various circumstances. Exploring these multiple dimensions, we question any simplistic understanding of racial mixture as the blessing or the curse of Latin American racial dynamics.

Folk conceptualizations of racism and antiracism in Brazil and South Africa

Abstract Folk conceptualizations of racism can be defined as ordinary peoples understandings of the sources and persistence of racism. They function as equalization strategies – by denying the legitimacy of racism – and guide beliefs regarding antiracism strategies. I explore folk explanations of racism among black professionals in Brazil and South Africa by drawing on sixty interviews with members of these groups. In Brazil, racism is understood as an historical lingering, a product of ignorance, which will disappear with time and education. In South Africa, racism is viewed as more resilient, as a part of human nature and as a consequence of the competition for resources. These explanations of racism are closely related to the antiracism narratives that are salient in these two contexts: while Brazilian respondents affirm their belief in racial mixture and moral education, South African respondents are more uncertain about the possibilities of weaker racial boundaries in their country, relying on institutional constraints as their main antiracism strategy.

Amor e desprezo: o velho caso entre sociologia e educação no âmbito do GT-14

This paper deals with the relations between sociology and education. In the first part, this relationship is discussed in historical terms, from the entrance of sociology in Brazil during the 1920s up to its institutionalisation as sociology of education in the faculties of pedagogy, during the 1970s and 1980s. In the second part, a survey of the production of the Anped Sociology of Education Working Group is carried out, focusing on the principle themes, methodologies and bibliographies that dominated the group during the 1990s. The object is to stimulate discussion on the development of the sociology of education in recent years and to indicate possible paths and tendencies for the future of this discipline in Brazil.

Unexpected Narratives from Multicultural Policies: Translations of Affirmative Action in Brazil

This paper investigates the ways in which the global spread of multicultural policies affects local ideas about race, inequality and diversity as evident in affirmative action policies in Brazilian universities. Our interviews with university administrators and university students indicate that, when implemented in Brazil, affirmative action acquired new meanings and predominantly class-based justifications. Such a transformation is illustrated by the idea of diversity, which acquired a different meaning to diversity discourses in the United States and international agencies. For administrators, the idea of diversity did not take racial groups for granted but was part of a broader, black consciousness-raising project. Students experienced diversity within the university environment, but often understood it as class, not racial, diversity.

Complementary Rather than Contradictory: Diversity and Excellence in Peer Review and Admissions in American Higher Education

Diversity is largely accepted as a positive value in American society. Nevertheless, policies to encourage diversity, e.g. affirmative action, language policies and legalising illegal immigrants, are still largely disputed, and often understood as having contradictory and largely negative consequences. The implementation of diversity is still seen as a threat to meritocracy, national cohesion, and democracy. This paper analyses how excellence and diversity are discussed in two academic decision-making processes: admission at two elite public universities and the distribution of competitive research fellowships. We argue that excellence and diversity are not alternative but additive considerations in the allocation of resources. The administrators and academics we studied factor diversity in as an additional consideration when decisions are to be made between applicants of roughly equal standing.

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.