Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil

by France Winddance Twine

Book Overview

In Racism in a Racial Democracy, France Winddance Twine asks why Brazilians, particularly Afro-Brazilians, continue to have faith in Brazil's "racial democracy" in the face of pervasive racism in all spheres of Brazilian life. Through a detailed ethnography, Twine provides a cultural analysis of the everyday discursive and material practices that sustain and naturalize white supremacy.

This is the first ethnographic study of racism...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813523656
• ISBN13: 9780813523651
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A picture of many facets of racism in Brazil

The book contains the author's field observations about racism during her one year stay in a very small community. The book does describe many forms of racism in Brazil but the observations can not be generalized to our entire country. Brazil is a very large country and racism is expressed in different ways in different regions. But, definetely, racial democracy is a Brazilian myth.

Gripping expose of Brasilian myths. . . .

Like a hot knife through butter, France W. Twine's book cuts through the myth of racial equality promoted by Brasilians the world over. Her scholarly analysis covers the whole society, from top to bottom. Having been hosted by a Brasilian family, Twine investigates and interviews a wide-ranging selection of White, Black and Brown Brasilians of every social level. Twine, a Black American, notes the glaring absence of Black and Brown people from the higher echelons of social, political and economic life in Brasil; she smoothly documents the relegation of virtually everyone of color to menial jobs and dependency on White employers for financial support. Twine writes of the ostracization often endured by interracial couples, along with the near-rabid attention given to everything European. Most notably, She describes the various tactics that Black Brasilians employ to rationalize the obvious--from claiming white heritage (no matter how black the skin) to simple avoidance to flat-out denial. Significantly, Black Brasilians tend to celebrate racial miscegenation, while White Brasilians strongly cling to the ideal of racial purity. Separate but equal indeed. The sad result is that these tactics do nothing but perpetuate white supremacy in a country that boasts one of the world's highest disparities in income distribution among its citizenry. Astonishingly, Black Brasilians are among the most insistent on denying the existence of racism, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary. To her great credit, Twine does not condemn Brasilians for their cultural views or tactics--even when she is directly challenged and/or rebuked. She simply suggests that the MYTH of racial egalitarianism in Brasil is powerfully effective: if you get people to believe that everyone is equal and throw in a pinch of variety (a smattering of poor Whites coexist with poor Blacks), then barriers to social mobility can easily be attributed to individual failings, rather than institutionalized racism. Finally, Twine makes clear that the status of Blacks and Browns in Brasil will never change until enough of them summon the courage to forcibly challenge the status quo--something unlikely to occur in a country that reveres everything White and denigrates African ancestry. Twine's gift for description, observation and analysis deserves no small credit for exposing one of most egregious examples of social justice denied.

The best written analysis of race in Brazil

Ms. France W. Twine has written a superb analysis on how race is still, in the end of the 20th century, perhaps the main factor determining an individual's social and economic position within Brazilian society. This is truly a myth-shattering book; and it is impressive how an American student (though the fact of being African-American may have helped her not to swallow the official, non-racist myths of official propaganda) has managed, after a stay of only a few months, to understand a reality that has eluded dozens of academics and experts who've written about Brazil in the last decades.According to Ms. Frances, it is only in the lower classes that the myth of a "non-racial" Brazilian society broadly corresponds to reality; in fact, there are no "black" or brown" ghettoes in Brazil - in the favelas one may find people of all colours, even if darker skin usually predominates. But to gain access to the middle or upper classes while being black or of mixed race is virtually impossible in Brazil (with the possible exception of soccer stars and a few outstanding musicians) - thanks to the deadly efficient system of "polite and hidden" racism that Ms. Frances has understood and analysed so well. A Brazilian citizen, after reading this book, can only say: "obrigado, senhorita Frances!".

Uma interessante analise que a maioria dos brasileiros

É uma interessante analise que nem mesmo os brasileiros tem. Mergulhados numa crença em que o pais com o seu ritmo musical e falsa alegria torna nossa sociedade fantasticamnete miscigenada e em paz. Estamos num clima de guerra.This is really a kind of analysis that brasilian's people need. living in the middle of a not-declared civil war, that confront poors black and rich whites, they dreaming about a racial democracy. The most black peoples are living in terrible conditions and the difference between black a white are really discuted in this book. If you wanna know something more about this "racial demmocracy ,you need to read this book. It needs altough a brazilian version.