2004/10/01 by João H. Costa Vargas · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Politics and Society in Latin America #Race, History, and American Society #Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil
paper · doi:10.1080/10702890490883803
crossref issued 2004/10/01 · crossref published 2004/10/01 · crossref published-print 2004/10/01 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/01 · crossref created 2004/12/07 · crossref deposited 2023/04/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30
Brazilian social relations—their practices and their representations—are marked by a hyperconsciousness of race. Such hyperconsciousness, while symptomatic of how Brazilians classify and position themselves in the life world, is manifested by the often vehement negation of the importance of race. This negation forcefully suggests that race is neither an analytical and morally valid tool, nor plays a central role in determining Brazilian social hierarchies. The hyperconsciousness/negation of race dialectic allows us to understand how a system that is on the surface devoid of racial awareness is in reality deeply immersed in racialized understandings of the social world. To approach the hyperconsciousness/negation of race conundrum, I review pertinent Brazilian and United States bibliography focusing on problems associated with the racial democracy myth, and utilize ethnographic data and interpret newspapers articles reporting on one of the many events of police corruption and brutality in Rio de Janeiro.