Race in Latin America
Carlyn Rodgers
This session seeks to present and unpack the topic of race in Latin America. Moving across time through the historical context of Columbian contact and beyond into the turn of the 21st century, we will discuss the ways in which the formation and formulation of race shift and take shape in and across the region. Additionally, we will also situate this examination within discussion of the manifestations of racism and racial oppression throughout the region, in addition to the context of struggles against it.
Required readings
- Appelbaum, N.P., Macpherson, A.S. & Rosemblatt, K.A. (2003). Race and nation in modern Latin America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. (Introduction: Racial Nations, p.1-31)
- Miller, M.G. (2004). Rise and fall of the cosmic race: the cult of mestizaje in Latin America. 1st. ed., Austin: University of Texas Press. (Introduction: The Cult of Mestizaje, p. 1-26 and Chapter 1: José Vasconcelos’ About-Face on the Cosmic Race, p. 27-44)
- Smith, C. (2016). Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. (Introduction, p.1-30 and Interlude II: “The Berlin Wall” + Chapter 2: The Paradox of Black Citizenship, p. 71-112)
- Wade, P. (2010). Race and ethnicity in Latin America. London: Pluto. (Chapter 2: Black and Indigenous People in Latin America, p. 24-40)
Further readings
- Carneiro, S. (2015). Racismo, Sexismo e Desigualdade no Brasil. São Paulo: Summus Editorial Ltda.
- Da Costa, A.E. (2014). “Confounding Anti-racism: Mixture, Racial Democracy, and Post-racial Politics in Brazil.” Critical Sociology, 42(4-5), pp.495–513.
- Greene, S. (2007). “Introduction: On Race, Roots/Routes, and Sovereignty in Latin America’s Afro-Indigenous Multiculturalisms.” Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 12(2), pp.329–355.
- Hale, C., Calla, P. and Mullings, L. (2017). “Race Matters in Dangerous Times.” NACLA Report on the Americas, 49(1), pp.81–89.
- Hooker, J. (2005) “Indigenous Inclusion/Black Exclusion: Race, Ethnicity and Multicultural Citizenship in Latin America,” Journal of Latin American Studies. Cambridge University Press, 37(2), pp. 285–310.
- Gonzalez, L. (2020). Por um feminismo afro-latino-americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos. Organizers: Rios, F. and Lima, M. Rio De Janeiro: Zahar.
- James, C.L.R. (1989). The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York, N.Y.: Vintage.
- Moraes Silva, G., Souza Leão, L. and Grillo, B. (2019). "Seeing whites: views of black Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro," Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43(4), pp.632–651.
- Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2010) ‘Distributed intensities: Whiteness, mestizaje and the logics of Mexican racism’, Ethnicities 10(3), pp. 387–401.
- Nascimento, A. (2016). O genocídio do negro brasileiro: processo de um racismo mascarado. São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva S.A.
- Paschel, T. (2018). Becoming black political subjects: movements and ethno-racial rights in Colombia and Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Perry, K.-K.Y. (2013). Black Women Against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Rios, F. (2012). O PROTESTO NEGRO NO BRASIL CONTEMPORÂNEO (1978-2010). Lua Nova [online] 85, pp.41–79.
- Sansone, L. (2003). Blackness without ethnicity: constructing race in Brazil. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
- Smith C. and Caldwell, K., Muse, W., Paschal, T., Perry, K., Williams E. (23 March 2018). “On The Imperative of Transnational Solidarity: A U.S. Black Feminist Response to the Assassination of Marielle Franco,” The Black Scholar.
- Telles, E. (2014). Pigmentocracies: ethnicity, race, and color in Latin America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
- Telles, E. and Flores, R. (2013). “Not Just Color: Whiteness, Nation, and Status in Latin America”. Hispanic American Historical Review, 93(3), pp.411–449.
- Wynter, S. (2003). “Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation--An Argument.” CR: The New Centennial Review, [online] 3(3), pp.257–337.
Additional Resources
- AmarElo: É Tudo Pra Ontem. (2020). Netflix.
- Brown, M. (2022). Mano Brown recebe Sueli Carneiro. [online] Mano a Mano. 26 May.
- Rios, F. (2020). Questão racial e antirracismo sob a ditadura militar. [online] Ciclo de Seminários PPGH-UFBA.
- Smith, C. (2020). Uma Conversa com Dra. Sueli Carneiro. [online] Cite Black Women Podcast. Mar.