Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro - Paperback

Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro - Paperback

SKU: 9780520293809
Categories : Anthropology
In Stock
Regular price$69.91

by Jennifer Roth-Gordon (Author)

Based on spontaneous conversations of shantytown youth hanging out on the streets of their neighborhoods and interviews from the comfortable living rooms of the middle class, Jennifer Roth-Gordon shows how racial ideas permeate the daily lives of Rio de Janeiro's residents across race and class lines. Race and the Brazilian Body weaves together the experiences of these two groups to explore what the author calls Brazil's "comfortable racial contradiction," where embedded structural racism that privileges whiteness exists alongside a deeply held pride in the country's history of racial mixture and lack of overt racial conflict. This linguistic and ethnographic account describes how cariocas (people who live in Rio de Janeiro) "read" the body for racial signs. The amount of whiteness or blackness a body displays is determined not only through observations of phenotypical features--including skin color, hair texture, and facial features--but also through careful attention paid to cultural and linguistic practices, including the use of nonstandard speech commonly described as gíria (slang).

Vivid scenes from daily interactions illustrate how implicit social and racial imperatives encourage individuals to invest in and display whiteness (by demonstrating a "good appearance"), avoid blackness (a preference challenged by rappers and hip-hop fans), and "be cordial" (by not noticing racial differences). Roth-Gordon suggests that it is through this unspoken racial etiquette that Rio residents determine who belongs on the world famous beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon; who deserves to shop in privatized, carefully guarded, air conditioned shopping malls; and who merits the rights of citizenship.

Front Jacket

Race and the Brazilian Body provides a useful and original contribution to the field of the study of race in urban Brazil. By analyzing the use of language and euphemism, Jennifer Roth-Gordon provides a crucial and heretofore missing component for understanding Brazilian cultural practices associated with race, color, and class. This is an excellent and important study that will be a much-needed addition to the current discussion.--Jan Hoffman French, author of Legalizing Identities: Becoming Black or Indian in Brazil's Northeast

"Based on years of field work, this superb book is a complex and nuanced account of how race is produced, experienced, and denied in Rio de Janeiro, interweaving multiple sites of semiotic analysis from the sound of voices to the shape of the city on both small and large scales. The work sets a new standard for the ethnographic study of race and racialization."--Jane H. Hill, author of The Everyday Language of White Racism

"Poignant and pointed, this fascinating study delves into the everyday practices of racial identification in contemporary Brazil. Roth-Gordon shows how negotiations over strategic acts of self-positioning--amid discourses of "racial cordiality," class, and security--exacerbate the vulnerabilities of blackness and whiteness. Her sophisticated analysis provides important, fresh insights on Brazil's long-studied racial contradictions, with clear implications for how ordinary acts can reinforce or challenge broad structures of inequality anywhere."--Kristina Wirtz, author of Performing Afro-Cuba: Image, Voice, Spectacle in the Making of Race and History

Author Biography

Jennifer Roth-Gordon is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

Number of Pages: 248
Dimensions: 0.7 x 8.9 x 5.9 IN
Publication Date: December 20, 2016
Quantity
Add to wishlist
Add to compare
Delivery time: 2-7 business days
Free 30 days return
Payment Options
Categories : Anthropology

Help

If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us. We'll get back to you as soon as possible, withing 24 hours on weekdays.

Customer service

All questions about your order, return and delivery must be sent to our customer service team by e-mail at yourstore@yourdomain.com

Sale & Press

If you are interested in selling our products, need more information about our brand or wish to make a collaboration, please contact us at press@yourdomain.com

by Jennifer Roth-Gordon (Author)

Based on spontaneous conversations of shantytown youth hanging out on the streets of their neighborhoods and interviews from the comfortable living rooms of the middle class, Jennifer Roth-Gordon shows how racial ideas permeate the daily lives of Rio de Janeiro's residents across race and class lines. Race and the Brazilian Body weaves together the experiences of these two groups to explore what the author calls Brazil's "comfortable racial contradiction," where embedded structural racism that privileges whiteness exists alongside a deeply held pride in the country's history of racial mixture and lack of overt racial conflict. This linguistic and ethnographic account describes how cariocas (people who live in Rio de Janeiro) "read" the body for racial signs. The amount of whiteness or blackness a body displays is determined not only through observations of phenotypical features--including skin color, hair texture, and facial features--but also through careful attention paid to cultural and linguistic practices, including the use of nonstandard speech commonly described as gíria (slang).

Vivid scenes from daily interactions illustrate how implicit social and racial imperatives encourage individuals to invest in and display whiteness (by demonstrating a "good appearance"), avoid blackness (a preference challenged by rappers and hip-hop fans), and "be cordial" (by not noticing racial differences). Roth-Gordon suggests that it is through this unspoken racial etiquette that Rio residents determine who belongs on the world famous beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon; who deserves to shop in privatized, carefully guarded, air conditioned shopping malls; and who merits the rights of citizenship.

Front Jacket

Race and the Brazilian Body provides a useful and original contribution to the field of the study of race in urban Brazil. By analyzing the use of language and euphemism, Jennifer Roth-Gordon provides a crucial and heretofore missing component for understanding Brazilian cultural practices associated with race, color, and class. This is an excellent and important study that will be a much-needed addition to the current discussion.--Jan Hoffman French, author of Legalizing Identities: Becoming Black or Indian in Brazil's Northeast

"Based on years of field work, this superb book is a complex and nuanced account of how race is produced, experienced, and denied in Rio de Janeiro, interweaving multiple sites of semiotic analysis from the sound of voices to the shape of the city on both small and large scales. The work sets a new standard for the ethnographic study of race and racialization."--Jane H. Hill, author of The Everyday Language of White Racism

"Poignant and pointed, this fascinating study delves into the everyday practices of racial identification in contemporary Brazil. Roth-Gordon shows how negotiations over strategic acts of self-positioning--amid discourses of "racial cordiality," class, and security--exacerbate the vulnerabilities of blackness and whiteness. Her sophisticated analysis provides important, fresh insights on Brazil's long-studied racial contradictions, with clear implications for how ordinary acts can reinforce or challenge broad structures of inequality anywhere."--Kristina Wirtz, author of Performing Afro-Cuba: Image, Voice, Spectacle in the Making of Race and History

Author Biography

Jennifer Roth-Gordon is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

Number of Pages: 248
Dimensions: 0.7 x 8.9 x 5.9 IN
Publication Date: December 20, 2016

Shipping & Returns

Shipping
We deliver your parcel within 2–3 working days. As soon as your package has left our warehouse, you will receive a confirmation by email. This confirmation contains a tracking number that you can use to find out where your package is.

Returns
We offer free returns within 30 days. All you have to do is fill out the return slip that you received in your package and stick the prepaid label on the package.Please note that it can take 2 weeks for us to process your return. We will do our best to complete this process as soon as possible.

Shipping & Returns

Shipping
We deliver your parcel within 2–3 working days. As soon as your package has left our warehouse, you will receive a confirmation by email. This confirmation contains a tracking number that you can use to find out where your package is.

Returns
We offer free returns within 30 days. All you have to do is fill out the return slip that you received in your package and stick the prepaid label on the package.Please note that it can take 2 weeks for us to process your return. We will do our best to complete this process as soon as possible.

Warranty

We provide a 2-year limited warranty, from the date of purchase for all our products.

If you believe you have received a defective product, or are experiencing any problems with your product, please contact us.

This warranty strictly does not cover damages that arose from negligence, misuse, wear and tear, or not in accordance with product instructions (dropping the product, etc.).

Warranty

We provide a 2-year limited warranty, from the date of purchase for all our products.

If you believe you have received a defective product, or are experiencing any problems with your product, please contact us.

This warranty strictly does not cover damages that arose from negligence, misuse, wear and tear, or not in accordance with product instructions (dropping the product, etc.).

Secure Payment

Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.

We accept payments with :
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Paypal, Diners Club, Discover and more.

Secure Payment

Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.

We accept payments with :
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Paypal, Diners Club, Discover and more.

Related Products

You may also like