Blacks and Whites in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1988

by Andrews, George Reid

• ISBN13: 9780299131043
• ISBN10: 0299131041
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

For much of the twentieth century Brazil enjoyed an international reputation as a "racial democracy," but that image has been largely undermined in recent decades by research suggesting the existence of widespread racial inequality. George Reid Andrews provides the first thoroughly documented history of Brazilian racial inequality from the abolition of slavery in 1888 up to the late 1980s, showing how economic, social, and political changes in Brazil during the last one hundred years have shaped race relations. No laws of segregation or apartheid exist in Brazil, but by looking carefully at government policies, data on employment, mainstream and Afro-Brazilian newspapers, and a variety of other sources, Andrews traces pervasive discrimination against Afro-Brazilians over time. He draws his evidence from the country's largest and most economically important state, Sao Paulo, showing how race relations were affected by its transformation from a plantation-based economy to South America's most urban, industrialized society. The book focuses first on Afro-Brazilians' entry into the agricultural and urban working class after the abolition of slavery. This transition, Andrews argues, was seriously hampered by state policies giving the many European immigrants of the period preference over black workers. As immigration declined and these policies were overturned in the late 1920s, black laborers began to be employed in agriculture and industry on nearly equal terms with whites. Andrews then surveys efforts of blacks to move into the middle class during the 1900s. He finds that informal racial solidarity among middle-class whites has tended to exclude Afro-Brazilians from the professions and other white-collar jobs. Andrews traces how discrimination throughout the century led Afro-Brazilians to mobilize, first through the antislavery movement of the 1880s, then through such social and political organizations of the 1920s and 1930s as the Brazilian Black Front, and finally through the anti-racism movements of the 1970s and 1980s. These recent movements have provoked much debate among Brazilians over their national image as a racial democracy. It remains to be seen, Andrews concludes, whether that debate will result in increased opportunities for black Brazilians.

Author Biography

George Reid Andrews is professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh.  He is the author of The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press. 

Table of Contents

List of Tables	ix	(2)
Acknowledgments	xi
Chapter 1. Introduction	3	(22)
Part 1. Workers	25	(100)
Chapter 2. Slavery and Emancipation, 1800-1890	25	(29)
Chapter 3. Immigration, 1890-1930	54	(36)
Chapter 4. Working, 1920-1960	90	(35)
Part 2. The Middle Class	125	(86)
Chapter 5. Living in a Racial Democracy, 1900-1940	125	(32)
Chapter 6. Blacks Ascending, 1940-1988	157	(24)
Chapter 7. Organizing, 1945-1988	181	(30)
Part 3. Past, Present, Future	211	(36)
Chapter 8. One Hundred Years of Freedom: May 13, 1988	211	(23)
Chapter 9. Looking Back, Looking Forward	234	(13)
Appendix A. Population of Sao Paulo State, 1800-1980	247	(2)
Appendix B. Brazilian Racial Terminology	249	(10)
Appendix C. Personnel Records at the Jafet and Sao Paulo Tramway, Light, and Power Companies	259	(4)
Glossary	263	(2)
Notes	265	(74)
Selected Bibliography	339	(18)
Index	357