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As Latin America's flagship 'racial democracy,' Brazil is famous for its history of race mixture and fluid racial boundaries. Traditionally, scholars have emphasized that this fluidity has often led to whitening, where individuals seek classification in white, or lighter, racial categories. Yet, Back to Black documents a sudden reversal in this trend, showing instead that individuals are increasingly opting to identify with darker, and especially black, racial categories. Drawing on a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data, David De Micheli attributes this sudden reversal to the state's efforts at expanding access to education for the lower classes. By unleashing waves of upward mobility, greater education increased individuals' personal exposure to racial hierarchies and inequalities and led many to develop racial consciousness, further encouraging black identification. The book highlights how social citizenship institutions and social structures can work together to affect processes of identity politicization and the contestation of inequalities.
List of contents
List of tables; List of figures; 1. Introduction; 2. The puzzle of racial reclassification; 3. Theory: racial reclassification as political identity formation; 4. Education as a mechanism of exposure; 5. Education and reclassification: testing the hypothesis; 6. Affirmative action and reclassification; 7. Implications for national politics; 8. Conclusion; References; Appendix A. supplementary information to chapters two and three; Appendix B. supplementary information to chapter four; Appendix D. supplementary information to chapter five; Appendix C. supplementary information to chapter six; Appendix E. supplementary information to chapter seven.
About the author
David De Micheli is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. He was previously Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University. De Micheli's research has appeared in World Politics, Government and Opposition, and Latin American Politics and Society.
Summary
This book documents and explains a recent paradigm shift in Brazil's racial politics and subjectivity in recent decades. It engages major theories in ethnoracial politics, documents an understudied empirical phenomenon, and develops a novel theoretical argument about identity politicization and the shifting dynamics of Brazilian racial politics.
Foreword
This book documents and explains an underexamined paradigm shift in Brazil's racial politics and subjectivity in recent decades.
