To What Extent Can Contemporary Brazil be Described as a Racial Democracy
In order to answer this question it
must be defined, ‘racial democracy’ is a term used to define race relations in
Brazil, it is the belief that Brazil has managed to escape the racism that has
plagued other countries, most notably the US.
This essay will examine the extent to which this concept accurately
describes Brazils situation, both when the term was first advanced and
today. Close attention will also be paid
to the US, as that is the country that has most often been used as a point of
comparison.
The concept of a ‘racial democracy’ was
first coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre in 1933; Freyre argued
that several factors had prevented racial categories from emerging in
Brazil. He called on the benign nature
of Iberian imperialism, which had always been much more accepting of inter-....
