Abstract: Pacto da Branquitude, by Cida Bento, published in 2022, addresses racial discrimination in Brazil, analyzing white supremacy and its effects. The work stands out for its accessible language and focus on racial and gender equity, and criticizes the system, despite presenting certain information gaps.
Keywords: Whiteness, Racial Equity, Racism.
Pacto da Branquitude is a book published by Cida Bento that summarizes some of the main issues present in the author’s career. Her objective is to understand how black people are discriminated against in Brazil due to their color, while white people are favored by the system through the narcissistic pact of whiteness — a term she coined in her doctoral thesis in Social Psychology at the University of São Paulo (USP ), in 2002. The work was published in 2022 by Companhia das Letras.
Academic interest and public debate about whiteness have increased, as stated by the Whiteness Observatory (2022). The theme emerged in the USA with W. E. B. Du Bois and in Brazil with Guerreiro Ramos, in 1957. Although he did not yet use the term “whiteness”, Ramos explores the “social pathology of the ‘white Brazilian'”. Cida Bento addressed the issue motivated by personal experiences of discrimination and her work with human resources. She is a counselor and one of the founders of the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities (Ceert) and has worked as a teacher in the basic network, recruiter, head of selection, and Human Resources executive. Her work includes the organization of books such as Social Psychology of Racism (2002) and Affirmative Action and Diversity at Work (2002) and her thesis Narcissistic Pacts in Racism (2002) on whiteness is a pioneer in Brazil. The book in question is an expression of the author’s desire to synthesize the main issues of her career, maintaining an accessible language (Santos, 2022). This is reflected in the structure of the work: there are ten chapters, plus the introduction and epilogue, totaling 148 pages in pocket book format.
In the introduction, Bento analyzes race relations in Brazil and its connection with white supremacy. The central argument is that there is a problem in relations between blacks and whites caused by white supremacy, manifesting itself in whiteness and resulting in disadvantages for blacks and privileges for whites. Bento uses his own trajectory and other experiences as a guiding thread to make the reading more fluid. According to Ana Oliveira (2020, p.95), the use of accessible language characterizes the decolonization of knowledge and offers a discursive alternative that can generate paths for expanding readerships and not barriers to access to knowledge.
In the first and second chapters, the author presents the field of study of whiteness. Initially, she explains the concept of “narcissistic pacts of whiteness”: an unspoken agreement between white people who maintain their power in society, resulting in exclusion and privileges. She highlights how white supremacy throughout history disguises the myth of meritocracy and perpetuates the negative effects of slavery. She then explores the construction of whiteness, declaring that European colonization imposed European identity as universal. The author describes the academic field of whiteness and presents the three waves of critical studies in the United States. Finally, it announces the most recent productions on the theme of whiteness in Brazil, citing authors such as: Lourenço Cardoso and Lia Vainer Schucman.
In these first chapters, the author uses linguistic resources to make reading more engaging and attractive, including the use of irony and examples interspersed with theoretical explanations. However, there are gaps in information (inevitable, considering the didactic genre), such as the historiographical reference for the Free Womb Law.
In the third chapter, the author addresses the concept of “racial capitalism”, which is based on the exploitation of the logic of race, ethnicity and gender, to expropriate work and the means of production. Racial capitalism creates the conditions of wealth expropriation and brutality that sustain the system. The consequence of this condition is the creation of hegemonic Eurocentric narratives that choose what will be remembered and what will be forgotten. Hence the importance of the action of black collectives. In this segment, however, the author inverts the logic of cause and consequence without clearly explaining this relationship, leaving the task to the more attentive reader.
In the fourth chapter, the author explores the connection between the concepts of “authoritarian personality”, “white masculinity” and “nationalism”. She asserts that authoritarian personality theory is characterized by ethnocentrism and enemy making, which aligns with white masculinity and nationalism. These power figures corrupt the democratic system by promoting exclusionary values disguised as “traditional values” (pp. 53–54). Bento combines facts and theory to demonstrate that racism contributes to the extermination of the black population in Brazil. The author observes that this relationship receives little visibility in research, indicating possible paths for future investigation in critical studies of whiteness.
In the following four chapters, the author focuses on her main object of study: institutional racism and its consequences. She defines the phenomenon as actions at an organizational level that, regardless of the intention to discriminate, end up having a differential and negative impact on a certain group. Once again, the author uses her personal experience, highlighting that favoring one group over others historically occurs in institutions through implicit pacts that perpetuate ideological and economic exclusions. She establishes solid connections between institutional racism, whiteness, and narcissistic pacts.
Next (seventh chapter), the author addresses the consequences of institutional racism for black women. She highlights domestic work as the perpetuation of the legacy of slavery and the underrepresentation of black women in executive positions in large corporations, explained by the whiteness that involves the maintenance of privileges and the exclusion of rights. The author illustrates exclusionary behaviors in Brazilian society, making the book practical and current. Furthermore, it expands readers’ theoretical repertoire by presenting a synthesis of the thoughts of black feminist authors and researchers, such as Lélia Gonzalez, Sueli Carneiro and Djamila Ribeiro.
In the eighth chapter, the author presents her and Ceert’s actions against institutional racism and the effects of the narcissistic pacts of whiteness. She justifies the creation of a center aimed at defending the rights of the black population and promoting race and gender equality, highlighting that, even in places where there are discourses of equal opportunities, the discourse of whiteness and male supremacy still prevails. is white.
Addressing the myth of racial democracy, she illustrates how whiteness justifies the absence of public policies for historical reparation and blames the black population for their marginalization. Thus, with institutional and didactic examples, she adds to the field of studies on institutional racism, a perspective mentioned by Lélia Gonzalez (2020, p. 43): cultural racism manipulates social representations of whitening and the myth of racial democracy to the point of internalizing them.
In the last two chapters, Cida Bento justifies the timeliness of her publication (2022) and emphasizes the value of organizations that fight for racial and gender equity, given the limitations of changes in diversity and equity policies in Brazil. It highlights the impacts of racial and gender discrimination on education and the job market, emphasizing the urgency of public policies that promote democratic management. Next, the author contextualizes her book historically, highlighting social polarization and racial and gender inequality worsened by neoliberal policies. Thus, it recalls the violent history that sustains institutions and perpetuates inequalities, maintaining whiteness in the highest positions of power in society.
In the epilogue, the author projects her book into the future, reflecting on how change is being built. She emphasizes that the fight against the system, built by whiteness and white supremacy, will be a collective and lasting process, carried out by private and public organizations and that will promote a change in the structural paradigm.
The author fulfills the objective presented in the introduction of the work, which is to present the phenomenon of whiteness and its narcissistic pacts. It addresses several instances in which whiteness manifests or relates, such as the structure of institutions and economic, cultural and political relations. The author strives to produce a book accessible to undergraduate humanities students, HR professionals, those seeking training in the areas of gender equity and racial equity, as well as scholars new to research on whiteness.
References
OLIVEIRA, A. C. A. Lélia Gonzalez e o pensamento interseccional: uma reflexão sobre o mito da democracia racial no Brasil. Interterritórios. Cauruaru, v. 6, no. 10, 2020, 16 p.
GONZALES, Lélia. Por um feminismo afro-latino americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2020. Organização de Flávia Rios e Márcia Lima.
Summary of O pacto da branquitude
Introdução
1. O Pacto narcísico
2. Branquitude e colonização europeia
3. Capitalismo racial
4. Personalidade autoritária, masculinidade branca e nacionalismo
5. O campo de estudos sobre branquitude
6. Racismo institucional
7. O caso das Mulheres
8. Enfrentando os desafios: CEERT
9. Projetos de transformação
10. O momento presente
Epílogo: Exercitando a mudança – Vidas negras importam
BENTO, Cida. O pacto da branquitude. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2022. 152p. Review by: LEITE, Lhais Isla Dantas. Didactic speech against racism. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/discurso-didatico-contra-o-racismo-resenha-de-lhais-isla-dantas-leite-ufs-sobre-o-livro-pacto-da-branquitude-de-cida-bento/>.
Abstract: Pacto da Branquitude, by Cida Bento, published in 2022, addresses racial discrimination in Brazil, analyzing white supremacy and its effects. The work stands out for its accessible language and focus on racial and gender equity, and criticizes the system, despite presenting certain information gaps.
Keywords: Whiteness, Racial Equity, Racism.
Pacto da Branquitude is a book published by Cida Bento that summarizes some of the main issues present in the author’s career. Her objective is to understand how black people are discriminated against in Brazil due to their color, while white people are favored by the system through the narcissistic pact of whiteness — a term she coined in her doctoral thesis in Social Psychology at the University of São Paulo (USP ), in 2002. The work was published in 2022 by Companhia das Letras.
Academic interest and public debate about whiteness have increased, as stated by the Whiteness Observatory (2022). The theme emerged in the USA with W. E. B. Du Bois and in Brazil with Guerreiro Ramos, in 1957. Although he did not yet use the term “whiteness”, Ramos explores the “social pathology of the ‘white Brazilian'”. Cida Bento addressed the issue motivated by personal experiences of discrimination and her work with human resources. She is a counselor and one of the founders of the Center for the Study of Labor Relations and Inequalities (Ceert) and has worked as a teacher in the basic network, recruiter, head of selection, and Human Resources executive. Her work includes the organization of books such as Social Psychology of Racism (2002) and Affirmative Action and Diversity at Work (2002) and her thesis Narcissistic Pacts in Racism (2002) on whiteness is a pioneer in Brazil. The book in question is an expression of the author’s desire to synthesize the main issues of her career, maintaining an accessible language (Santos, 2022). This is reflected in the structure of the work: there are ten chapters, plus the introduction and epilogue, totaling 148 pages in pocket book format.
In the introduction, Bento analyzes race relations in Brazil and its connection with white supremacy. The central argument is that there is a problem in relations between blacks and whites caused by white supremacy, manifesting itself in whiteness and resulting in disadvantages for blacks and privileges for whites. Bento uses his own trajectory and other experiences as a guiding thread to make the reading more fluid. According to Ana Oliveira (2020, p.95), the use of accessible language characterizes the decolonization of knowledge and offers a discursive alternative that can generate paths for expanding readerships and not barriers to access to knowledge.
In the first and second chapters, the author presents the field of study of whiteness. Initially, she explains the concept of “narcissistic pacts of whiteness”: an unspoken agreement between white people who maintain their power in society, resulting in exclusion and privileges. She highlights how white supremacy throughout history disguises the myth of meritocracy and perpetuates the negative effects of slavery. She then explores the construction of whiteness, declaring that European colonization imposed European identity as universal. The author describes the academic field of whiteness and presents the three waves of critical studies in the United States. Finally, it announces the most recent productions on the theme of whiteness in Brazil, citing authors such as: Lourenço Cardoso and Lia Vainer Schucman.
In these first chapters, the author uses linguistic resources to make reading more engaging and attractive, including the use of irony and examples interspersed with theoretical explanations. However, there are gaps in information (inevitable, considering the didactic genre), such as the historiographical reference for the Free Womb Law.
In the third chapter, the author addresses the concept of “racial capitalism”, which is based on the exploitation of the logic of race, ethnicity and gender, to expropriate work and the means of production. Racial capitalism creates the conditions of wealth expropriation and brutality that sustain the system. The consequence of this condition is the creation of hegemonic Eurocentric narratives that choose what will be remembered and what will be forgotten. Hence the importance of the action of black collectives. In this segment, however, the author inverts the logic of cause and consequence without clearly explaining this relationship, leaving the task to the more attentive reader.
In the fourth chapter, the author explores the connection between the concepts of “authoritarian personality”, “white masculinity” and “nationalism”. She asserts that authoritarian personality theory is characterized by ethnocentrism and enemy making, which aligns with white masculinity and nationalism. These power figures corrupt the democratic system by promoting exclusionary values disguised as “traditional values” (pp. 53–54). Bento combines facts and theory to demonstrate that racism contributes to the extermination of the black population in Brazil. The author observes that this relationship receives little visibility in research, indicating possible paths for future investigation in critical studies of whiteness.
In the following four chapters, the author focuses on her main object of study: institutional racism and its consequences. She defines the phenomenon as actions at an organizational level that, regardless of the intention to discriminate, end up having a differential and negative impact on a certain group. Once again, the author uses her personal experience, highlighting that favoring one group over others historically occurs in institutions through implicit pacts that perpetuate ideological and economic exclusions. She establishes solid connections between institutional racism, whiteness, and narcissistic pacts.
Next (seventh chapter), the author addresses the consequences of institutional racism for black women. She highlights domestic work as the perpetuation of the legacy of slavery and the underrepresentation of black women in executive positions in large corporations, explained by the whiteness that involves the maintenance of privileges and the exclusion of rights. The author illustrates exclusionary behaviors in Brazilian society, making the book practical and current. Furthermore, it expands readers’ theoretical repertoire by presenting a synthesis of the thoughts of black feminist authors and researchers, such as Lélia Gonzalez, Sueli Carneiro and Djamila Ribeiro.
In the eighth chapter, the author presents her and Ceert’s actions against institutional racism and the effects of the narcissistic pacts of whiteness. She justifies the creation of a center aimed at defending the rights of the black population and promoting race and gender equality, highlighting that, even in places where there are discourses of equal opportunities, the discourse of whiteness and male supremacy still prevails. is white.
Addressing the myth of racial democracy, she illustrates how whiteness justifies the absence of public policies for historical reparation and blames the black population for their marginalization. Thus, with institutional and didactic examples, she adds to the field of studies on institutional racism, a perspective mentioned by Lélia Gonzalez (2020, p. 43): cultural racism manipulates social representations of whitening and the myth of racial democracy to the point of internalizing them.
In the last two chapters, Cida Bento justifies the timeliness of her publication (2022) and emphasizes the value of organizations that fight for racial and gender equity, given the limitations of changes in diversity and equity policies in Brazil. It highlights the impacts of racial and gender discrimination on education and the job market, emphasizing the urgency of public policies that promote democratic management. Next, the author contextualizes her book historically, highlighting social polarization and racial and gender inequality worsened by neoliberal policies. Thus, it recalls the violent history that sustains institutions and perpetuates inequalities, maintaining whiteness in the highest positions of power in society.
In the epilogue, the author projects her book into the future, reflecting on how change is being built. She emphasizes that the fight against the system, built by whiteness and white supremacy, will be a collective and lasting process, carried out by private and public organizations and that will promote a change in the structural paradigm.
The author fulfills the objective presented in the introduction of the work, which is to present the phenomenon of whiteness and its narcissistic pacts. It addresses several instances in which whiteness manifests or relates, such as the structure of institutions and economic, cultural and political relations. The author strives to produce a book accessible to undergraduate humanities students, HR professionals, those seeking training in the areas of gender equity and racial equity, as well as scholars new to research on whiteness.
References
OLIVEIRA, A. C. A. Lélia Gonzalez e o pensamento interseccional: uma reflexão sobre o mito da democracia racial no Brasil. Interterritórios. Cauruaru, v. 6, no. 10, 2020, 16 p.
GONZALES, Lélia. Por um feminismo afro-latino americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2020. Organização de Flávia Rios e Márcia Lima.
Summary of O pacto da branquitude
Introdução
1. O Pacto narcísico
2. Branquitude e colonização europeia
3. Capitalismo racial
4. Personalidade autoritária, masculinidade branca e nacionalismo
5. O campo de estudos sobre branquitude
6. Racismo institucional
7. O caso das Mulheres
8. Enfrentando os desafios: CEERT
9. Projetos de transformação
10. O momento presente
Epílogo: Exercitando a mudança – Vidas negras importam
BENTO, Cida. O pacto da branquitude. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2022. 152p. Review by: LEITE, Lhais Isla Dantas. Didactic speech against racism. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/discurso-didatico-contra-o-racismo-resenha-de-lhais-isla-dantas-leite-ufs-sobre-o-livro-pacto-da-branquitude-de-cida-bento/>.
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Lhais Isla Dantas Leite has a degree in História pela Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS) and works in the private basic education network in the Estado de Sergipe. Among other works, she published: Retorno a um clássico: Resenha do livro “Vovó nagô e papai branco”. ID LATTES: https://lattes.cnpq.br/9591635516615112. ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2319-3146; E-mail: laih.leite@gmail.com.
