Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Ethnic Groups in Conflict

The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. Michele Lamont New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press, 2000. 391 pp.

The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration.

American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Douglas S. Massey , Nancy A. Denton

A comparative look at how discrimination is experienced by stigmatized groups in the United States, Brazil, and Israel Racism is a common occurrence for members of marginalized groups around the world. Getting Respect illuminates their experiences by comparing three countries with enduring group boundaries: the United States, Brazil and Israel. The authors delve into what kinds of stigmatizing or discriminatory incidents individuals encounter in each country, how they respond to these occurrences, and what they view as the best strategy-whether individually, collectively, through confrontation, or through self-improvement-for dealing with such events. This deeply collaborative and integrated study draws on more than four hundred in-depth interviews with middle- and working-class men and women residing in and around multiethnic cities-New York City, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv-to compare the discriminatory experiences of African Americans, black Brazilians, and Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel, as well as Israeli Ethiopian Jews and Mizrahi (Sephardic) Jews. Detailed analysis reveals significant differences in group behavior: Arab Palestinians frequently remain silent due to resignation and cynicism while black Brazilians see more stigmatization by class than by race, and African Americans confront situations with less hesitation than do Ethiopian Jews and Mizrahim, who tend to downplay their exclusion. The authors account for these patterns by considering the extent to which each group is actually a group, the sociohistorical context of intergroup conflict, and the national ideologies and other cultural repertoires that group members rely on. Getting Respect is a rich and daring book that opens many new perspectives into, and sets a new global agenda for, the comparative analysis of race and ethnicity.

Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel

In this article, we explore the impact of the global cultural transformation that reconciles the values of equality and difference as parameters of the good life. Focusing on the way Brazilians perceive both equality and difference, we comment on the uncertain consequences of the interplay of old and new repertoires of social identity and inclusion. In particular, we look at the ethnoracial aspect, the most salient issue on the current debate about difference. Empirically, we analyze perceptions of inequality and difference among different segments of the Brazilian population. In particular, we focus on two issues. First, we discuss the interface of ethnoracial and national identifications in the country. Second, we explore perceptions about inequality and difference and their relationship, with special emphasis on attitudes towards affirmative action – the most traditional policy to take into account particular identities while distributing social resources – among distinct socioeconomic and racial groups.

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Global Processes and National Dilemmas The Uncertain Consequences of the Interplay of Old and New Repertoires of Social Identity and Inclusion

The notion that racial mixture is a central feature of Latin American societies has been interpreted in different, if not strictly opposite, ways. On the one hand, scholars have presented it as evidence of weaker racial boundaries. On the other, it has been denounced as an expression of the illusion of harmonic racial relations. Relying on 160 interviews with black Brazilians, we argue that the valorization of racial mixture is an important response to stigmatization, but one that has multiple dimensions and different consequences for the maintenance of racial boundaries. We map out these different dimensions – namely, ‘whitening’, ‘Brazilian negritude’, ‘national identification’ and ‘non-essentialist racialism’ – and discuss how these dimensions are combined in different ways by our interviewees according to various circumstances. Exploring these multiple dimensions, we question any simplistic understanding of racial mixture as the blessing or the curse of Latin American racial dynamics.

The multiple dimensions of racial mixture in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: from whitening to Brazilian negritude

Most Brazilians believe that racial and socioeconomic inequalities tend to overlap—in other words, blacks are poorer because they have less education and worse jobs. In the past few years, however, several quantitative studies have presented an interesting puzzle: racial inequalities are strongest among those at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy. This article explores the "elitist profile" of racial discrimination through eighty in-depth interviews with black professionals in Rio de Janeiro. The results show that interviewees describe their trajectories of social mobility through mechanisms that involve both socioeconomic and racial exclusion. Their perceptions of injustice, however, are more directly related to experiences of racial discrimination. In narrating incidents of discrimination, interviewees stress the distinction and tensions between what we call generalized prejudice and particularized universalism. Abstract: A maioria dos brasileiros e muitos cientistas sociais acreditam que negros sao mais pobres do que brancos porque tem menos educacao e piores empregos. Pesquisas quantitativas recentes sobre desigualdade, porem, revelam um interessante paradoxo que contradiz esta crenca: nos niveis mais altos de renda e educacao a desigualdade racial e mais forte. Nosso estudo busca compreender este "perfi l elitista" da desigualdade racial atraves de 80 entrevistas semiestruturadas com profi ssionais liberais negros. Os entrevistados ressaltam a interacao de mecanismos de exclusao raciais e socioeconomicos nas suas trajetorias de ascensao social. Suas percepcoes e experiencias de injustica, contudo, estao diretamente ligadas a discriminacao racial. Em um plano analitico, o artigo discute as tensoes entre preconceito generalizado e universalismo privado nas experiencias dos profi ssionais negros entrevistados.

Perceptions of Racial Discrimination among Black Professionals in Rio De Janeiro

Um elemento central, mas pouco discutido, no debate sobre relacoes raciais no pais e a perspectiva dos brasileiros pardos - a identificacao etno-racial que mais cresceu nos ultimos censos. historicamente os pardos compartilham uma situacao socioeconomica parecida com a dos pretos, mas identificam de maneira sistematica menos discriminacao racial do que esse grupo. O foco sobre as percepcoes dos pardos permite explorar duas questoes centrais das relacoes raciais brasileiras, a identificacao racial e a mensuracao da discriminacao, a partir de uma perspectiva pouco explorada. Para isso, utilizamos dados de survey e analisamos entrevistas semiestruturadas com entrevistados que se identificam como pardos - metodo que permite priorizar suas percepcoes, estrategias e definicoes de fronteiras raciais e simbolicas.

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Graziella Moraes Silva

Papers

Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil, and Israel

Global Processes and National Dilemmas The Uncertain Consequences of the Interplay of Old and New Repertoires of Social Identity and Inclusion

The multiple dimensions of racial mixture in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: from whitening to Brazilian negritude

Perceptions of Racial Discrimination among Black Professionals in Rio De Janeiro

O paradoxo da mistura: identidades, desigualdades e percepção de discriminação entre brasileiros pardos