Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil PDF
Preview Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil
Page iii Racism in a Racial Democracy The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil France Winddance Twine Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Page iv Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Twine, France Winddance Racism in a racial democracy : the maintenance of white supremacy in Brazil / France Winddance Twine. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0813523648 (cloth : alk. paper). — ISBN 0813523656 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Blacks—Brazil—Social conditions. 2. Brazil—Race relations. 3. Racism—Brazil. I. Title F2659.N4T86 1997 305.896'081—dc21 9710768 CIP British CataloginginPublication data for this book are available from the British Library. Copyright © 1998 by France Winddance Twine All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, Livingston Campus, Bldg. 4161, P.O. Box 5062, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. The only exception to this prohibition is "fair use" as defined by U.S. copyright law. Manufactured in the United States of America Page v In honor of my maternal grandmother, Frances V. Lewis (1897–1978), who gave me my dreams My mother, Mamie Lois Twine, who gave me life In memory of my father, Paul Quinton Twine (1941–1994) Page vii Contents List of Illustrations and Tables ix Acknowledgments xi 1 1 Introduction 2 15 Vasalia: The Research Site 3 31 Mapping the Ideological Terrain of Racism: The Social, Sexual, Socioeconomic, and Semiotic Contours 4 65 Discourses in Defense of the Racial Democracy 5 87 Embranquecimento: Aesthetic Ideals and Resistance to Mestiçagem 6 111 Memory: White Inflation and Willful Forgetting 7 135 Strategic Responses to Racism: Preserving White Supremacy Appendix A: Interview Schedule 155 Appendix B: Biographical Data on Interviewees 157 Notes 159 Glossary 165 Bibliography 167 Index 173 Page ix Illustrations and Tables Illustrations 1. The main street of Vasalia 16 2. The public television located in one of the poorest sections of Vasalia 22 3. The Assembly of God Protestant church 24 4. The children of workingclass families 28 5. Dona Hilma with her grandsons 33 6. Niara, an elevenyearold criada 36 7. Mani and her husband and son 42 8. The country residence of a white elite family 44 9. A typical twostory business and residence of a white middleclass family 46 10. Carlucci, Tatiana's son, and his fiancée, Monisha 50 11. Vittorio, a published poet and retired military officer, with his family 51 12. Dona Conceição, a member of an elite winemaking family in Vasalia 58 13. The residence of two workingclass EuroBrazilian families 69 14. Neuza, daughter of Dona Rosaria, Jonathan Warren, and the author 92 celebrating the birth of Neuza's son 15. Tônica, an empregada for a white elite family, and her husband, Sebastião 97 16. Luisa, an aspiring AfroBrazilian teacher, and her three sons 99 17. Edimar, his wife, Madalena, and their son Glauber 124 18. Dr. Giovanni and his wife, Raquel, members of the white elite of Vasalia 131 19. Looking down the hill from the hospital 145 20. Moema and her siblings, members of the white elite 146 Page x Tables 2.1. Population of Vasalia, Census of 1991 19 2.2. Population of Boa Vista (includes Vasalia), Census of 1980 20 Page xi Acknowledgments This book is dedicated to my maternal grandmother, Frances V. Lewis (1897–1978), my mother, Mamie Lois Phillips Twine, and my father, Paul Quinton Twine (1941–1994). My family's faith in the value of my work sustained me during a long and difficult process of research and writing. Win Warren generously provided financial support that enabled me to return to Brazil for a second research trip. The completion of this book required the generosity and support of numerous friends, colleagues, and Brazilians who have all left their mark on it. I want to first thank all of the residents of the community I refer to as Vasalia who generously shared their lives and struggles with me. Several Brazilian families invited me into their homes and are now important members of my extended family. They gave me a home away from my field research and patiently tutored me in Brazilian Portuguese during my first months in Brazil. In this vein, I thank the families of Carla Barbosa de Brito, Fernando Neves, Regina Helena Vianna, Cesar Claudio Vianna, Antonio de Lourdes da Silva, Ana Lídia Vianna dos Santos Ivo, Lílian Janete Nunes de Meneze, Silvana Maria Martins Alves, and Cleonice Pankararu for their moral support, wonderful meals, and gracious tolerance of my neverending questions about the dynamics of race in Brazil. I also thank Imar Moreira, Luiz Barbosa, and Selma Oliviera. These Brazilian Americans supported me in numerous ways before, during, and after my field research by providing introductions and crucial contacts. It is doubtful that I would have completed this book without the support of Selma Oliviera. She accompanied me to Brazil for two weeks during my second Page xii fieldwork period and transcribed a portion of my taped interviews so that I could complete the first draft of this manuscript before assuming my teaching position at the University of Washington. This book is based upon my dissertation research, which was directed by Professor Gerald Berreman at the University of California at Berkeley. I benefited greatly from working with such a humane mentor. My dissertation committee constituted what I refer to as my "dream team" of anthropologists and sociologists: Margaret Conkey, Kristin Luker, Troy Duster, Pedro Noguera, and Nancy ScheperHughes. During the past two years I have been grateful to my colleagues in the Women Studies Department at the University of Washington in Seattle for providing me with a feminist milieu in which to teach and work. I especially wish to thank Susan Jeffords and Shirley Yee, consecutive directors of Women Studies for granting me release time from teaching during the final stages of manuscript preparation. Professors Tani Barlow and SueEllen Jacobs supported this project by generously sharing material and pointing me to various journal articles and books that bore directly upon some aspect of my research. Naheed Islam, Rebecca Aanerud, Caroline Chung Simpson, Priscilla Wald, Katharyne Mitchell, Julia O'Connell Davidson, and Judith Howard read and offered insightful comments about various portions of drafts of this book. My research assistant, Lara Harris, gave me constant support by locating and obtaining references at the last minute. I owe a debt of gratitude that I can never repay to Louisa Schein, my colleague at Rutgers University, for introducing me to Martha Heller, the Social Sciences Editor at Rutgers University Press. I could not have asked for a more passionate and supportive editor. During the review process, her comments, along with those of Ellen Basso and Howard Winant, were invaluable in guiding me through the final stages of manuscript preparation. I am especially thankful to the Departments of Anthropology at Princeton University and the University of California at Santa Cruz for inviting me to present sections of this book in draft. Special thanks to Carolyn Martin Shaw. Several institutions supplied funding at various stages of the research and writing. The University of California at Berkeley awarded me a Graduate Research Fellowship, which funded my first research period in Brazil. In 1993–94 I wrote the first draft of this manuscript while receiving a disserta Page xiii tion grant from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. I thank the anthropology and sociology departments at Colorado College for providing me with a home and thank the following community of scholars for their friendship and intellectual stimulation: Michael Siddoway (mathematics), Tom McGlinn (physics), and Margi Duncombe, Jeff Livesay, and Katarina Wegar (sociology). The Boeing Faculty Assistance Grant at the University of Washington gave me funding to revise the manuscript during the summers of 1994 and 1995. Ara Wilson, Charm Farris Stephens, Michael Siddoway, and my uncle, Jim Pertle, have given me various forms of intellectual, moral, and practical support over the past decades. I am especially grateful for all the support that they gave me during my field research in Brazil. I am blessed to have a group of friends to catch me in the midst of fatigue fogs generated by demanding work. In this vein I thank the following friends for their support: Tom McGlinn, Naheed Islam and Raihan Zamil, Pedro Noguera and Patricia Vattoune, Tony de Falco, Darrell Robinson, Arnell Hinkle and John Wolfe, Maria Franklin, and Tim Riera. I am particularly thankful for the enthusiasm of my partner of eight years, Jonathan Warren, who consistently encouraged me when I had no research funding and no secure employment. Jonathan Warren, a sociologist, accompanied me to the field on two occasions and supported me during all phases of my research and writing. In addition to assuming virtually all of the responsibilities for running our household, he read, commented upon, and reread every chapter of this book. I have benefited from his generosity as a scholar and a friend. San Francisco November 1996
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