2019/11/11 by Antonio José Bacelar da Silva, Erika Robb Larkins · 36 citations
Social Sciences · Engineering · #Politics and Society in Latin America #Race, Identity, and Education in Brazil #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Racism #Race (biology) #Politics #Affirmative action #Prejudice (legal term) #Power (physics) #Backlash #Political economy #Political science #Sociology #Law #Gender studies #Engineering
paper · doi:10.1111/jlca.12438
published in The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 24(4), 893-913 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2019/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract We apply the concept of antiblackness and a Deleuzian approach to sociopolitical events to analyze Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 election in Brazil. Historically, Brazilians turned from overt expressions of antiblackness to subtler forms of racial prejudice, what Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (1956) called the “cordial man” who practiced a “gentlemanly” form of white supremacy. Recently, however, cordial racism has eroded in favor of more virulent and explosive manifestations of antiblackness that fueled the sociopolitical climate that enabled Bolsonaro's rise to power. We examine the antiblack backlash against race‐conscious laws and policies implemented during the Workers’ Party era (2002–16), showing a gradual shift toward more overt expressions of antiblackness that Bolsonaro wielded to political effect in his 2018 campaign. [affirmative action, blackness, Bolsonaro, Brazil, race]