Abstract: O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional, by Muniz Sodré, aims to analyze post-abolitionist Brazilian racism. The work is criticized for omitting discussions about religious racism and fascism, in addition to superficially dealing with complex themes, despite being considered useful for social movements and the study of racism.
Keywords: Racism, Brazilian Racism, Fascism.
O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional is a chronological compendium that problematizes the construction and maintenance of racism amidst various global transformations. In this work, the author aims to demonstrate the different characteristics, forms and manifestations of post-abolitionist Brazilian racism. The 280-page book was published in 2023 by Editora Vozes — Petrópolis/RJ.
Muniz Sodré de Araújo Cabral (1942 -) was born in São Gonçalo dos Campos-BA, is a sociologist, journalist, translator, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), writer and researcher of media and communication, national culture, techniques of journalistic text and fiction, with books translated into Italian and Spanish. In Fascism of Color, the author emphasizes that Brazilian racism is a product of post-abolition, in line with the emergence of European fascism, with emphasis on the slave-based social form practiced to this day. It is possible to verify that this work was published in the first half of 2023, due to the emergence of debates regarding the configurations of national racism, given the dissemination of considerations, mainly about structural racism. The book consists of a prologue and 4 chapters.
In the prologue, the author talks about the characteristics of the Independence process of the 13 Colonies, the North American Federal Constitution, the American Civil War and the formation of the United States, highlighting the actions of racial segregation. Weaving a biblical historical line about the racist belief regarding the origin of African people, originating from the curse of Ham and consolidated by the European Christian social imaginary, the author states that this is the solid basis of racism in America, which sees the other as the enemy and that this enemy will always be black. In this way, leucocracy, which is the power arising from white privilege, is exercised in a broad way, supported and supported by erudition, by power and its laws, and by common sense, making the ground fertile for supremacist actions and domination. In this first moment, Muniz Sodré achieved what he set out to do in the prologue, which was a historical approach to American racism, despite carrying it out (unconsciously) in a Braudelian long-duration configuration.
In the first chapter, the researcher highlights that unlike the North American case, in Brazil, as it is a country with a low republican culture and originating from the social relations of oligarchic and landowning families. The conception of Brazil as a company gave the planter power and control over economic sugar production and slave labor. The construction of this chapter reveals a historical gap not addressed by Sodré, when he approaches in the post-abolition context, in which Brazilian society would be the “society of “concealment”, in the sense of a social formation oriented towards erasure than what happened before” (p. 23).
Upon a slightly more careful reading, it is possible to verify the replication of this fact in the work itself, thus characterizing a very evident authorial incoherence, as at several moments the author disregards important contexts experienced by enslaved Africans in Brazil. Here, it could be the moment to explain that we had actions of black people in the constitution of Brazil, before Abolition, see Quilombo dos Palmares, the Malês Revolt and, even, the forms of purposeful erasure of the diverse identities of African peoples who were the target of racism engendered since the 16th century.
Also in the first chapter, the researcher criticizes the erroneous use of the term “structural racism”, disseminated by Sílvio Almeida in a work of the same name (2018). Muniz Sodré emphasizes that during the constitution of the Brazilian Republic, its structures were created to not function, therefore there is no logic in using the term “structural racism”, because, based on this assumption, racism would not be in force in Brazilian lands until today. . However, Sodré commits a contradiction in his writing by denying the use of the term structural racism, basing his speech on a structural bias.
At the end of the chapter, the author gives a laconic approach to the Brazilian Penal Code of 1890, regarding the prohibition of spiritualism practices. It refers to the presence of religious racism in Brazil and highlights Eugenics as one of the main elements in the constitution of cultural racism, perpetuated in our current national scenario.
In the second chapter, Sodré discusses the slavery structure with a factual approach, based on historical characters from Brazil and by theorists from Sociology, Philosophy and History, among other fields. It cites moments from the daily lives of enslaved people, highlighting in a very brief way the religious events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, against the grain of the Christian rites movement. It also discusses African religious practices, related by Nina Rodrigues to mental problems and, by other authors, as folkloric manifestations. Both the cited authors and Sodré himself do not consider them ritualistic, ancestral and religious practices.
In this chapter, the author also states that anti-black racism is the oldest that exists, although this phenomenon was present at the beginning of European exploration, when African gods were demonized to weaken the security, identity and religious practices of the Bantu and Jeje peoples. The author ends the segment with the declaration that national society often refuses to treat racism as a phenomenon present in the most diverse social structures.
In the third chapter, Sodré explains the presence of the slave social form. He states that the slave social form is not an ideology. It is, according to the author, a way of life. Sodré emphasizes the internal ambiguity of the slave social form, by succinctly citing fascism and the academic speeches of Nina Rodrigues, Sílvio Romero and Monteiro Lobato. There would be, according to the author, a kind of “Brazilian” racism, as such intellectuals were contradictory in expressing the qualities of black people and, at the same time, defending racial theories and the whitening of the race. Throughout the chapter, the author uses some terms that may bother the most attentive reader, when he refers to black national personalities, using the term “admittedly black” to characterize people like Guerreiro Ramos (p. 83) and Joaquim Barbosa. What is the need to highlight these people with such a term and exclude others like Luiz Gama and Luiza Mahin?
The fourth chapter is dedicated to criticizing the Brazilian left, always protected by books and shelves and indifferent to the daily reality of racism. Again, in erudite strokes, he cites moments when black people were never the focus. Next, the researcher makes a fruitless attempt to epitome the historical evidence of racism in Brazil. To this end, he addresses concepts such as “race” and “biopower” in a superficial way, establishing relationships with Linguistics to analyze the word “prejudice”. Using the expression “neoliberal society”, he highlights that national racism is “more a logic of place than of meaning” (p. 154).
In the afterword, the author uses authors from the most diverse areas of knowledge to debate the Brazilian racist form, which is antagonistic to American structural racism. He highlights whiteness, arising from leucocracy and whiteness as an item of negotiation.
Unfortunately, only at the end of the work does the author make succinct considerations about African people, such as the “Nagôs” and the Bantu, to emphasize a debate around symbolic negotiation, a reflection of Brazilian racism.
Mãe Menininha do Gantois | Image: Terreiro do Gantois Collection/BBC Brasil
At the end of the afterword, the expert declares that racism should not be approached from a Nietzschean perspective of monumental history, considering only the great historical characters. On the contrary, the author states, we must opt for problematizing the phenomenon in its historicity.
In this book, the author does not fulfill what was announced, because, if we take into consideration the title of the work, we will notice that some necessary themes are absent, such as religious racism in its validity prior to the diaspora. Also missing is a broad and detailed approach to historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, educational facts, among others, that constituted several centuries of Brazilian education. Finally, the discussion about “fascism” is insufficient, revealing a purely commercial use of the term. Despite these omissions, the book is useful for training people involved in social movements and for those interested in obtaining a theoretical framework to refute studies and defenses that aim to combat Brazilian racism.
MORAES, Maxwell Azevedo Viana. A Construção da Falácia: teorias raciais e o processo de anulação da teogonia africana. Boletim do Tempo Presente. São Cristóvão, v.10, n.09, p. 49-51., Set. 2021.
Summary of O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional
Prólogo – Homo americanos
1. O nacional brasileiro
2. Da estrutura à forma
3. Contradição e ambiguidade
4. A passagem ao ato racista
Posfácio
Referências
Reviewer
Caroline de Lara has a master’s degree in História, Cultura e Identidades and a degree in História pela Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa/Paraná (UEPG). She is a professor at the private school system in Aracaju-SE and an administrative technician at Universidade Federal de Sergipe. Among other works, she published Da gênese ao caos: A resistência como testemunha ocular (2022). ID LATTES:http://lattes.cnpq.br/3064912647511582. ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3301-1685; E-mail: carohistoriadora@gmail.com.
To cite this review
SODRÉ, Muniz. O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2023. 280p. Review by: LARA, Caroline de. Reverse brushstrokes. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/reverse-brushstrokes-caroline-de-laras-uepg-ufs-review-of-o-fascismo-da-cor-uma-radiografia-do-racismo-nacional-by-muniz-sodre/>.
Abstract: O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional, by Muniz Sodré, aims to analyze post-abolitionist Brazilian racism. The work is criticized for omitting discussions about religious racism and fascism, in addition to superficially dealing with complex themes, despite being considered useful for social movements and the study of racism.
Keywords: Racism, Brazilian Racism, Fascism.
O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional is a chronological compendium that problematizes the construction and maintenance of racism amidst various global transformations. In this work, the author aims to demonstrate the different characteristics, forms and manifestations of post-abolitionist Brazilian racism. The 280-page book was published in 2023 by Editora Vozes — Petrópolis/RJ.
Muniz Sodré de Araújo Cabral (1942 -) was born in São Gonçalo dos Campos-BA, is a sociologist, journalist, translator, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), writer and researcher of media and communication, national culture, techniques of journalistic text and fiction, with books translated into Italian and Spanish. In Fascism of Color, the author emphasizes that Brazilian racism is a product of post-abolition, in line with the emergence of European fascism, with emphasis on the slave-based social form practiced to this day. It is possible to verify that this work was published in the first half of 2023, due to the emergence of debates regarding the configurations of national racism, given the dissemination of considerations, mainly about structural racism. The book consists of a prologue and 4 chapters.
In the prologue, the author talks about the characteristics of the Independence process of the 13 Colonies, the North American Federal Constitution, the American Civil War and the formation of the United States, highlighting the actions of racial segregation. Weaving a biblical historical line about the racist belief regarding the origin of African people, originating from the curse of Ham and consolidated by the European Christian social imaginary, the author states that this is the solid basis of racism in America, which sees the other as the enemy and that this enemy will always be black. In this way, leucocracy, which is the power arising from white privilege, is exercised in a broad way, supported and supported by erudition, by power and its laws, and by common sense, making the ground fertile for supremacist actions and domination. In this first moment, Muniz Sodré achieved what he set out to do in the prologue, which was a historical approach to American racism, despite carrying it out (unconsciously) in a Braudelian long-duration configuration.
In the first chapter, the researcher highlights that unlike the North American case, in Brazil, as it is a country with a low republican culture and originating from the social relations of oligarchic and landowning families. The conception of Brazil as a company gave the planter power and control over economic sugar production and slave labor. The construction of this chapter reveals a historical gap not addressed by Sodré, when he approaches in the post-abolition context, in which Brazilian society would be the “society of “concealment”, in the sense of a social formation oriented towards erasure than what happened before” (p. 23).
Upon a slightly more careful reading, it is possible to verify the replication of this fact in the work itself, thus characterizing a very evident authorial incoherence, as at several moments the author disregards important contexts experienced by enslaved Africans in Brazil. Here, it could be the moment to explain that we had actions of black people in the constitution of Brazil, before Abolition, see Quilombo dos Palmares, the Malês Revolt and, even, the forms of purposeful erasure of the diverse identities of African peoples who were the target of racism engendered since the 16th century.
Also in the first chapter, the researcher criticizes the erroneous use of the term “structural racism”, disseminated by Sílvio Almeida in a work of the same name (2018). Muniz Sodré emphasizes that during the constitution of the Brazilian Republic, its structures were created to not function, therefore there is no logic in using the term “structural racism”, because, based on this assumption, racism would not be in force in Brazilian lands until today. . However, Sodré commits a contradiction in his writing by denying the use of the term structural racism, basing his speech on a structural bias.
At the end of the chapter, the author gives a laconic approach to the Brazilian Penal Code of 1890, regarding the prohibition of spiritualism practices. It refers to the presence of religious racism in Brazil and highlights Eugenics as one of the main elements in the constitution of cultural racism, perpetuated in our current national scenario.
In the second chapter, Sodré discusses the slavery structure with a factual approach, based on historical characters from Brazil and by theorists from Sociology, Philosophy and History, among other fields. It cites moments from the daily lives of enslaved people, highlighting in a very brief way the religious events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, against the grain of the Christian rites movement. It also discusses African religious practices, related by Nina Rodrigues to mental problems and, by other authors, as folkloric manifestations. Both the cited authors and Sodré himself do not consider them ritualistic, ancestral and religious practices.
In this chapter, the author also states that anti-black racism is the oldest that exists, although this phenomenon was present at the beginning of European exploration, when African gods were demonized to weaken the security, identity and religious practices of the Bantu and Jeje peoples. The author ends the segment with the declaration that national society often refuses to treat racism as a phenomenon present in the most diverse social structures.
In the third chapter, Sodré explains the presence of the slave social form. He states that the slave social form is not an ideology. It is, according to the author, a way of life. Sodré emphasizes the internal ambiguity of the slave social form, by succinctly citing fascism and the academic speeches of Nina Rodrigues, Sílvio Romero and Monteiro Lobato. There would be, according to the author, a kind of “Brazilian” racism, as such intellectuals were contradictory in expressing the qualities of black people and, at the same time, defending racial theories and the whitening of the race. Throughout the chapter, the author uses some terms that may bother the most attentive reader, when he refers to black national personalities, using the term “admittedly black” to characterize people like Guerreiro Ramos (p. 83) and Joaquim Barbosa. What is the need to highlight these people with such a term and exclude others like Luiz Gama and Luiza Mahin?
The fourth chapter is dedicated to criticizing the Brazilian left, always protected by books and shelves and indifferent to the daily reality of racism. Again, in erudite strokes, he cites moments when black people were never the focus. Next, the researcher makes a fruitless attempt to epitome the historical evidence of racism in Brazil. To this end, he addresses concepts such as “race” and “biopower” in a superficial way, establishing relationships with Linguistics to analyze the word “prejudice”. Using the expression “neoliberal society”, he highlights that national racism is “more a logic of place than of meaning” (p. 154).
In the afterword, the author uses authors from the most diverse areas of knowledge to debate the Brazilian racist form, which is antagonistic to American structural racism. He highlights whiteness, arising from leucocracy and whiteness as an item of negotiation.
Unfortunately, only at the end of the work does the author make succinct considerations about African people, such as the “Nagôs” and the Bantu, to emphasize a debate around symbolic negotiation, a reflection of Brazilian racism.
Mãe Menininha do Gantois | Image: Terreiro do Gantois Collection/BBC Brasil
At the end of the afterword, the expert declares that racism should not be approached from a Nietzschean perspective of monumental history, considering only the great historical characters. On the contrary, the author states, we must opt for problematizing the phenomenon in its historicity.
In this book, the author does not fulfill what was announced, because, if we take into consideration the title of the work, we will notice that some necessary themes are absent, such as religious racism in its validity prior to the diaspora. Also missing is a broad and detailed approach to historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, educational facts, among others, that constituted several centuries of Brazilian education. Finally, the discussion about “fascism” is insufficient, revealing a purely commercial use of the term. Despite these omissions, the book is useful for training people involved in social movements and for those interested in obtaining a theoretical framework to refute studies and defenses that aim to combat Brazilian racism.
MORAES, Maxwell Azevedo Viana. A Construção da Falácia: teorias raciais e o processo de anulação da teogonia africana. Boletim do Tempo Presente. São Cristóvão, v.10, n.09, p. 49-51., Set. 2021.
Summary of O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional
Prólogo – Homo americanos
1. O nacional brasileiro
2. Da estrutura à forma
3. Contradição e ambiguidade
4. A passagem ao ato racista
Posfácio
Referências
Reviewer
Caroline de Lara has a master’s degree in História, Cultura e Identidades and a degree in História pela Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa/Paraná (UEPG). She is a professor at the private school system in Aracaju-SE and an administrative technician at Universidade Federal de Sergipe. Among other works, she published Da gênese ao caos: A resistência como testemunha ocular (2022). ID LATTES:http://lattes.cnpq.br/3064912647511582. ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3301-1685; E-mail: carohistoriadora@gmail.com.
To cite this review
SODRÉ, Muniz. O fascismo da cor: uma radiografia do racismo nacional. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2023. 280p. Review by: LARA, Caroline de. Reverse brushstrokes. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.4, n.15, jan./feb., 2024. Available at <https://www.criticahistoriografica.com.br/en/reverse-brushstrokes-caroline-de-laras-uepg-ufs-review-of-o-fascismo-da-cor-uma-radiografia-do-racismo-nacional-by-muniz-sodre/>.
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Caroline de Lara has a master’s degree in História, Cultura e Identidades and a degree in História pela Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa/Paraná (UEPG). She is a professor at the private school system in Aracaju-SE and an administrative technician at Universidade Federal de Sergipe. Among other works, she published Da gênese ao caos: A resistência como testemunha ocular (2022). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3064912647511582. ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3301-1685; E-mail: carohistoriadora@gmail.com.
