Brazilians held normalized race prejudice alongside a proud tradition of racial equality

Evidence

Brazilians who are aware of social realities in their country [will not] deny that race prejudice is entirely lacking, or that a mild form of racial discrimination exists and is growing in certain areas. There are well-known stereotypes and attitudes, traditional in Brazil, which indicate dispraisal of the Negro and of the mulatto. There are also well-known barriers to the social ascension of “people of colour” who are the descendants of slaves Yet most Brazilians are proud of their tradition of racial equality and of the racial heterogeneity of their people. They feel that Brazil has a great advantage over most Western nations in the essentially peaceful relations which exist between the people of various racial groups in their country. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3577

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the broader literature on ‘racial democracy’ as ideology masking structural racism — connects to debates about mestizaje in Mexico and the US civil-rights framing. — connects to: Brazilians deny personal prejudice while overwhelmingly endorsing stereotyping beliefs — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1794; Most Brazilians acknowledge racism yet deny their own prejudice. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1794; Brazil’s extreme inequality was so entrenched it went unmentionable in polite society — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 169
• DEFINE: Captures the classic formulation of the ‘racial democracy’ self-image that Latin American race scholarship cites and then debunks.