Blackness Without Ethnicity: Race and Construction of Black Identity in Brazil

Drawing on 15 years of research in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Suriname, and the Netherlands, Sansone explores the very different ways that race and ethnicity are constructed in Brazil and the rest of Latin America. He compares Latin American conceptions of race to US and European notions of race that are defined by clearly identifiable black-white ethnicities. Sansone argues that understanding more complex, ambiguous notions of culture and identity will expand international discourse on race and move it away from American definitions that inadequately describe racial difference. He also explores the effects of globalization on constructions of race. Ed Telles ...ground-breaking work. Blackness Without Ethnicity draws on fifteen years of his research in Bahia, Rio Suriname, and Amsterdam. Sansone uses his findings to explore the very different ways that race and ethnicity are constructed in Brazil and the rest of Latin America. He compares these Latin American conceptions of race to dominate notions of race that are defined by a black-white polarity and clearly identifiable ethnicities, formulations he sees as highly influenced by the US and to a lesser degree Western Europe. Sansone argues that understanding more complex and ambiguous notions of culture and identity will expand the international discourse on race and move it away from American dominated notions that are not adequate to describe racial difference in other countries (and also in the countries where the notions originated). He also explores the effects of globalization on constructions of race. "Drawing on 15 years of research in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Suriname, and the Netherlands, Sansone explores the very different ways that race and ethnicity are constructed in Brazil and the rest of Latin America. He compares Latin American conceptions of race to US and European notions of race that are defined by clearly identifiable black-white ethnicities. Sansone argues that understanding more complex, ambiguous notions of culture and identity will expand international discourse on race and move it away from American definitions that inadequately describe racial difference. He also explores the effects of globalization on constructions of race"--Publisher description. Annotation Drawing on 15 years of research in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Suriname, and the Netherlands, Sansone explores the very different ways that race and ethnicity are constructed in Brazil and the rest of Latin America. He compares Latin American conceptions of race to US and European notions of race that are defined by clearly identifiable black-white ethnicities. Sansone argues that understanding more complex, ambiguous notions of culture and identity will expand international discourse on race and move it away from American definitions that inadequately describe racial difference. He also explores the effects of globalization on constructions of race