Becoming Black Political Subjects : Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil

After decades of denying racism and underplaying cultural diversity, Latin American states began adopting transformative ethno-racial legislation in the late 1980s. In addition to symbolic recognition of indigenous peoples and black populations, governments in the region created a more pluralistic model of citizenship and made significant reforms in the areas of land, health, education, and development policy. Becoming Black Political Subjects explores this shift from color blindness to ethno-racial legislation in two of the most important cases in the region : Colombia and Brazil. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, Tianna Paschel shows how, over a short period, black movements and their claims went from being marginalized to become institutionalized into the law, state bureaucracies, and mainstream politics. The strategic actions of a small group of black activists--working in the context of domestic unrest and the international community's growing interest in ethno-racial issues--successfully brought about change. Paschel also examines the consequences of these reforms, including the institutionalization of certain ideas of blackness, the reconfiguration of black movement organizations, and the unmaking of black rights in the face of reactionary movements. Becoming Black Political Subjects offers important insights into the changing landscape of race and Latin American politics and provokes readers to adopt a more transnational and flexible understanding of social movements. -- Amazon.com Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil 4 Contents 6 List of Organizations 8 1 Political Field Alignments 14 From race mixture to Black rights 18 Multicultural constitutionalism 20 Explaining ethno-racial policy in Latin America 22 Why Colombia? Why Brazil? Why compare? 23 Political Field alignments and the making of Black political subjects 26 Political Field Alignments 31 Multicultural Alignments, Racial Equality Alignments 33 Organization of this book 36 A note on ethno-racial terminology 38 2 Making Mestizajes 41 Brazil: Racial democracy and the political field 43 From Whitening to Racial Democracy 44 Settling for Racial Mixture 46 Racelessness, Nation, and Authoritarian Regimes 50 Colombia: Mestizaje and the political field 53 Regionalized Mestizaje, Regional Mestizajes 54 Conclusion 58 3 Black Movements in Colorblind Fields 60 Mobilizing While Black, Mobilizing as Blacks 61 The articulation of Black movements in Brazil 64 Military Dictatorship and the Black Brazilian Movement 66 Black Cultural Organizations 68 The Making of the Unified Black Movement (MNU) 69 CONEN, UNEGRO, and Party Politics 71 The Emergence of the Black Women’s Movement 72 The NGO-ization of the Black Brazilian Movement 75 The articulation of Black movements in Colombia 77 Black Urban Intellectual Movements and the Struggle against Racism 78 The Catholic Church and the Making of an Ethno-Territorial Movement 81 Symbolic power and anti-racism as racism 84 You are the racists! 87 Pan-Africanism and the global dimensions of Black struggle 89 Conclusion 92 4 The Multicultural Alignment 94 Political field alignment around multiculturalism 95 The multicultural alignment in Brazil 101 The National Constituent Assembly and Ethno-Racial Rights 101 The Subcommission on Blacks, Indigenous Peoples, the Disabled, and Minorities 103 Anthropological Expertise 105 Criminalizing Racism, Defining Equality 107 Quilombos and Indigenous Rights 110 Blacks and the Final Draft of the 1988 Constitution 113 The multicultural alignment in Colombia 115 The 1991 Constitutional Reform Process 116 The Special Commission on Black Communities 120 Anthropological Expertise and the Special Commission 121 Conclusion 126 5 The Racial Equality Alignment 130 Political field alignment around racial equality 133 Promoting racial equality in Brazil 135 Projecting Racial Paradise 137 The National Committee on Durban 141 NGOs and Transnational Mobilization 142 The partial move to racial equality in Colombia 145 The 2005 Census and the Tentative Shift to Racial Equality 146 The Beautiful Faces Campaign of 2005 149 Equal Opportunity Laws and the Right to Racial Equality 153 The Equal Opportunities Bill 154 Colombia is a racist country! 157 Conclusion 164 6 Navigating the Ethno-Racial State 166 Absorption, ritualized participation, and radicalization 168 Navigating the multicultural state apparatus in Colombia 169 Formalizing Black Participation in the Colombian State 169 Electing “Black Representatives” 173 Special Seats for Black Communities in Congress 176 Legitimating Bankrupt Spaces for Black Participation 178 Demanding Autonomy from the State 180 Transnational Leverage and Alternative Engagement with the State 182 Navigating the racial equality state apparatus in Brazil 184 Absorption into the Racial Equality State Apparatus 187 Militants in the State 190 Transparent but Ritualized Participation in Brazil 192 Absorption and State Funding 193 Critiquing the Racial Equality Apparatus 195 Conclusion 200 7 Unmaking Black Political Subjects 202 Letra Muerta in Colombia 203 Expanding Capitalism, Delimiting Blackness 205 The Politics of Black Authenticity 208 Ritualized Participation and the Path That Never Was 213 Laws that stick, laws that don’t stick in Brazil 217 Ruralista Backlash and Quilombo Rights 219 The Statute of Racial Equality 221 The “Manifesto of the White Elite” 224 Winning and Losing the Ideological Debate 229 Conclusion 231 8 Rethinking Race, Rethinking Movements 233 Toward a political fields approach 236 Broadening Our Definitions of Political Actors 237 Taking Symbolic Power Seriously 238 Global Political Fields and Social Movement Politics 239 A “Long March” View of Social Movements 240 Rethinking ethno-racial identity and politics 242 Beyond the Multicultural Turn 243 Reconsidering the Latin Americanization of the United States 246 Beyond Cultural Imperialism, toward Global Embeddedness 247 Interrogating Blackness 249 Methodological Appendix 252 My multiple positionalities 253 In-depth interviews 256 Ethnographic Fieldwork 257 Archival analysis 258 Analyzing the data 260 Notes 262 1 Political Field Alignments 262 2 Making Mestizajes 266 3 Black Movements in Colorblind Fields 269 4 The Multicultural Alignment 273 5 The Racial Equality Alignment 277 6 Navigating the Ethno-Racial State 282 7 Unmaking Black Political Subjects 285 8 Rethinking Race, Rethinking Movements 288 Methodological Appendix 290 References 292 Acknowledgments 310 Index 316 After decades of denying racism and underplaying cultural diversity, Latin American states began adopting transformative ethno-racial legislation in the late 1980s. In addition to symbolic recognition of indigenous peoples and black populations, governments in the region created a more pluralistic model of citizenship and made significant reforms in the areas of land, health, education, and development policy. This book explores this shift from color blindness to ethno-racial legislation in two of the most important cases in the region: Colombia and Brazil. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, the book shows how, over a short period, black movements and their claims went from being marginalized to become institutionalized into the law, state bureaucracies, and mainstream politics. The strategic actions of a small group of black activists—working in the context of domestic unrest and the international community's growing interest in ethno-racial issues—successfully brought about change. The book also examines the consequences of these reforms, including the institutionalization of certain ideas of blackness, the reconfiguration of black movement organizations, and the unmaking of black rights in the face of reactionary movements. This book offers important insights into the changing landscape of race and Latin American politics and provokes readers to adopt a more transnational and flexible understanding of social movements. Political Field Alignments -- Making Mestizajes -- Black Movements In Colorblind Fields -- The Multicultural Alignment -- The Racial Equality Alignment -- Navigating The Ethno-racial State -- Unmaking Black Political Subjects -- Rethinking Race, Rethinking Movements. Tianna S. Paschel. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 279-295) And Index.