Book review: Brazilian racial politics

Brazilian Racial Politics

The reading provided , extracted from Orpheus and Power by Michael George Hanchard , critiques the Race vs . Class Paradigm that is widespread in the Brazilian society . By weaving together some works of the more renowned analysts and sociologists of the , he highlights two main things : firstly , the salient points of their claims and secondly , the faults in their arguments . By comparing and contrasting two schools of thought on the issue , Class-based and Structuralist , he points out certain weaknesses and the glaring irreconcilability of such thought when applied to the

trends in Brazilian economic society

The subject of Race and Class and their contributions into creating a society wherein oppression has been structured into policy has fueled many debates , much of them still ongoing . While there has not been any theoretical consensus reached , a characteristic that is always attendant in the field of academia , there is however , a fortunate by-product in that it has broadened the body of current knowledge to embrace other s into the discussion such as modes of production and social inequality . It is also interesting to note that the post-World War II era , as represented by the works of Oliver Cox and Stanley Greenberg show the minimum agreement between scholars that race , at the very least , plays cuts an integral figure in structuring the oppressive social inequality . This makes for a broader , richer and more interesting scholarly debate

Hanchard begins the comparison with a discussion on Economic Determinism and the study of the Negro population in Brazilian society through the written work of one Florestan Fernandes , Democracia Racial . Fernandes describes the relationship between the White elites ' and the Negroes ' in Brazilian society as a situation where the former limit themselves to treating the Negro with tolerance , maintaining the old ceremonial politeness in inter-racial relationships and excluding from this tolerance any true egalitarian feeling or content (Hanchard 32 By articulating the hegemonic position ' of the White population over the Black one , he more than hinted at the absence of racial democracy in Brazilian society

Fernandes ' analyzed the racial interaction of the society a pivotal time in economic Brazilian history . The importance of his written work may largely be attributed the perfect timing of it . His deconstructions and analysis of Brazilian society then , through interviews and the gathering of empirical data , did much to further the study of Brazilian racial relations . Moreover , his role and significant importance to the field is further underscored by the fact that he was the first to analyze the linkage between race and class in the context of Brazilian socio-economic development . He claimed that the Brazilian Blacks were exploited both during and after slavery by uncaring whites However , in a turn-about , he concludes that the Afro-Brazilian is dysfunctional , suffering from anomie , hopelessness and immorality and lacked a sense of discipline and responsibility that made them pale in comparison to Italian immigrants for competition in the labour markets . Hanchard , however , took issue with this particular conclusion and rebutted by emphasing the failure...