LATC-GA 2145 – Semester in Latin America: Brazilian Racial Democracy |
LATC-GA 2145 – Semester in Latin America: Brazilian Racial Democracy
New York University
Spring 2012
Sarah Sarzynski, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Racial democracy, or the myth of racial democracy, has been a dominant national narrative in Brazil throughout the twentieth century. Gilberto Freyre’s The Masters and the Slaves (1933) is often associated as the first articulation of “racial democracy.” Freyre argues that the benevolent nature of Brazilian slavery allowed for a racial democracy—that is, a society not based on racial divisions—to emerge through miscegenation. From the start, the national narrative of racial democracy drew comparisons between the Brazilian “racial paradise” and the segregated United States. The well-developed historiography on Brazilian racial democracy refutes Freyre’s arguments about the benevolent nature of Brazilian slavery and demonstrates how the narrative of racial democracy masks discrimination and racial inequality in Brazil. Yet, ideas attached to racial democracy have a remarkable persistence in Brazil even today, hindering the implementation of affirmative action policies and the recognition of indigenous peoples as national citizens.
The first part of this course focuses on contextualizing the development of racial democracy as a Brazilian national narrative. We examine the dominant racial ideologies and practices that preceded the idea of Brazil as a racial democracy during the Old Republic (1889-1930). Then, we turn to evaluating Freyre’s seminal work The Masters and the Slaves and how it turned into a political project of the Vargas Era (1930-45). We also analyze the challenges to racial democracy during this period by reading about black social movements and intellectuals, and resistance to national indigenous policies. Course readings include theoretical texts on democracy to position various meanings of racial democracy. The second part of the course traces developments and challenges to Brazilian racial democracy from 1945-1985. Themes include how racial democracy intersects with gender/ sexuality, modernization policies, groups excluded from the national mixed-race type, authoritarian rule, and mass culture/popular culture. The final section of the course shifts to contemporary issues of affirmative action and other racially based policies and resistance in popular culture. We focus on the persistence of notions attached to racial democracy and question how the national narrative has changed over time.
The course draws from interdisciplinary texts and sources including scholarly analyses in literary criticism, history and anthropology; archival documents such as Brazilian and US newspapers; film and popular culture; and, novels. Portuguese is not required.
Tags: New York University