Agency excluded — Bruna Gabriella Santiago Silva’s (PPGH/UFRGS) review of “Modernidades negras: a formação racial brasileira (1930-1970)”, by Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães
Abstract: Modernidades negras: a formação racial brasileira (1930–1970), by Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães, analyzes Brazilian racial formation (1930-1970) focusing on black intellectuality and racism in its ideological configuration. The work, criticized for limiting black agency and emphasizing white influences, is seen as partially successful in achieving its objective of reflecting on Brazilian social thought, being important for undergraduate students due to the diversity of sources and critical perspectives it offers.
Keywords: Black Modernity, Agency, Black Intellectuals.
Modernidades negras: A formação racial brasileira (1930–1970) is a book that brings together essays on Historical Sociology, published between 2003 and 2020, which, among other objectives, seeks to deepen studies on “the formation of black Brazilian intellectuality”. Starting from a sociological conceptual apparatus that makes it possible to understand the dimension of racism in the ideological formation of black intellectuals and the population in general, Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães addresses the definition of black, the self-affirmation of black people, and the ideas of race and racial democracy within black epistemologies. The book was published in 2021 by publisher 34.
Antonio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães is a full professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP) and a member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Preconceito e discriminação (1998), Racismo e antiracismo no Brasil (1999), Tirando a máscara: ensaios sobr o racismo no Brasil (2000) and Classes, raças e democracia (2002). He is, therefore, one of the essential intellectuals in the field of racial studies in Brazil. The book is prefaced by Matheus Gato and Flávia Rios who state: he is “the most cited author in studies of racial relations in the country” (p.07). The book is composed of nine essays that range from the analysis of racial studies in our territory and its historical formation to the final reflection on racial democracy and its formulation by white and black ideologists.
In the introduction, Guimarães presents the idea of modernity in its literary sense of “aesthetic renewal and representation of the world” (p.15). It is anchored in Paul Gilroy’s thinking, in relation to the counterculture of modernity, which would be the possibility for subalternized subjects, within the dominant culture, to subvert the definitions about themselves and define themselves, generating new meanings of being black.
In the first chapter, the author analyzes the concept of race in the sociological sense. Discussing the best epistemological paths to follow, he highlights the need to place the concept within a historical context, considering its limitations, overcomings and need for renewal within each socio-historical reality and time. From there, it brings the different conceptions of race and its main modulations and modifications throughout history, emphasizing the false idea of race in the biological sense and its overcoming, in the manner of Sociology and Social Sciences, that is, races as a construction sociopolitical. The author also exposes the differences between ethnicity, race and nation, defines and relates the concepts of social classes, color and culture.
In the second chapter, the author deals with the formation of Brazilian identity through the ideological project of miscegenation, describing the Brazilian social imaginary (a mestizo and racially fraternal country) that leads to racial democracy. He announces the State’s investment in the idea that freedom was in fact achieved with the end of captivity and that both abolitionism and republicanism (the author focuses on the period 1870-1930) were processes ideologically focused on mestizo culture. It is these feelings that will be at the heart of the aesthetic, cultural and epistemological elaboration (inside and outside) of black populations, aspects that marked, according to the author, modernity and Brazilian politics.
In the third chapter, we elaborate on the central thesis of the work. Starting from a Eurocentric conception, he brings the sociological definition of modernity as this radical rupture: past forms and only understood in relation to other notions. Regarding the definition of black modernity, the author states: “it is the process of cultural and symbolic inclusion of black people into Western society” (p.69). This modernity would be marked by the development of increasingly animalistic images of black people to counteract European images of humanity. Understanding the various modernities in a temporal sense, he highlights the specificities that mark the modern in Latin America, the United States and Europe.
In the fourth chapter, the author discusses black racial democracy in the 1940s, analyzing black cultural and intellectual circles, declaring that the ideology of miscegenation was a motto for an idea of Brazilian identity centered on race. The author analyzes the speeches of Abdias Nascimento, Solano Trindade and, Laurindo Pompílio, Raimundo Dantas and some ideas from Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), demonstrating the difficulty of constructing a discourse in racial terms until the 1940s. In the speeches, the author identifies the affirmation of the existence of color prejudice and not races. There was caution in pointing out Brazil as a racist country. The chapter ends with an account of the emergence of black racial democracy, describing how the idea of integration within a Brazilian mestizo identity supported this ideology.
The fifth chapter provides an overview of the development of Abdias Nascimento’s thought within the categories “resistance” and “revolt”. The author explains the break with the idea of racial democracy, expressed in O Negro revolted (1968). Chapter six continues thinking about the role of black intellectuals in the theoretical construction of racial democracy and how a militant discourse that denied it was gradually created.
The seventh chapter deals with the reception of the work of the Martinican intellectual Frantz Fanon in Brazilian universities, until the first decades of this century, pointing out the lack of interest on the Brazilian left in Fanon and the low acceptance of his ideas among young black people. Dialogue with this absence, the penultimate chapter of the book takes stock of affirmative actions in Brazil, from 1968 onwards, citing quota policy projects, including the one discarded by the minister of labor himself, Colonel Jarbas Passarinho.
The ninth and final chapter revisits the construction of the idea of racial democracy in the country. Transitioning between “ethnic democracy”, “racial fraternity” and “democracy race” (categories used by American thinkers),
the author explores names such as Gilberto Freyre, Thales de Azevedo, Guerreiro Ramos and states that, despite differences in approach, they still think in terms of a mixed-race nation where it would be possible to build a society without racial hierarchy.
Thales de Azevedo | Photo: Agilberto Lima/Wikipédia
Modernidades Negras covers a wide space of time and a plurality of sources that allows us to insert it into different debates. The concatenation of texts produced at different times draws attention, which allows us to understand the ideology of miscegenation as the basis of racial democracy (still used in the elaboration of affirmative policies in Brazil). The work informs about the different uses of racial democracy, constantly re-elaborated, and present, for example, in the authoritarian speeches of Jair Messias Bolsonaro and General Hamilton Mourão.
However, there are some concerns regarding the role of black people in the work. Although Antônio Sérgio states in the presentation that he is aligned with the idea of the counterculture of modernity, where subalterns redefine themselves, the chapter “Black Modernity” conceives the aforementioned category as black inclusion in Western culture. This vision is limited when we think about both the idea of incorporation into the “civilized” world and the possibility of self-definition within these terms. For the author, modernity would be this process of aesthetic and representative renewal that involves representations in the midst of art, music and political thought. In the Brazilian case, it would be marked by the action of white modernist intellectuals.
Observing the book from the critical studies of contemporary whiteness by Charles W. Mills (concept of “white ignorance”), we think it is a case of “ignorance” experienced by great intellectuals, where the veil of whiteness prevented them from moving between other perspectives and experiences. Despite bringing up the black experience, the book seems to focus more on the white influence on black people, not taking into account Gilroy’s idea that tells us about the alternation of domination and submission. This absence is expressed, for example, in the minimization of the role of the black press in the process of constituting Modernism, in the omission of black initiatives to preserve black culture, in the reinforcement of the idea of acculturation, in the induction of a pseudo-alignment of black intellectuals to the idea of racial democracy and the omission of left-wing racism as a condition for the low reception of Frantz Fanon’s ideas in Brazil.
For all the reasons above, the work partially fulfills the announced objective, which would be to reflect on Brazilian social thought. Despite its flaws, it should also be read by undergraduate students, especially due to the diversity of sources it presents and the critical possibilities it offers on the topic.
Summary of Modernidades negras
Introdução
1. O estudo de raças e sua formação histórica.
2. A liberdade é negra; a igualdade branca e a fraternidade, mestiça.
Agency excluded — Bruna Gabriella Santiago Silva’s (PPGH/UFRGS) review of “Modernidades negras: a formação racial brasileira (1930-1970)”, by Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães
Abstract: Modernidades negras: a formação racial brasileira (1930–1970), by Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães, analyzes Brazilian racial formation (1930-1970) focusing on black intellectuality and racism in its ideological configuration. The work, criticized for limiting black agency and emphasizing white influences, is seen as partially successful in achieving its objective of reflecting on Brazilian social thought, being important for undergraduate students due to the diversity of sources and critical perspectives it offers.
Keywords: Black Modernity, Agency, Black Intellectuals.
Modernidades negras: A formação racial brasileira (1930–1970) is a book that brings together essays on Historical Sociology, published between 2003 and 2020, which, among other objectives, seeks to deepen studies on “the formation of black Brazilian intellectuality”. Starting from a sociological conceptual apparatus that makes it possible to understand the dimension of racism in the ideological formation of black intellectuals and the population in general, Antônio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães addresses the definition of black, the self-affirmation of black people, and the ideas of race and racial democracy within black epistemologies. The book was published in 2021 by publisher 34.
Antonio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães is a full professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of São Paulo (USP) and a member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Preconceito e discriminação (1998), Racismo e antiracismo no Brasil (1999), Tirando a máscara: ensaios sobr o racismo no Brasil (2000) and Classes, raças e democracia (2002). He is, therefore, one of the essential intellectuals in the field of racial studies in Brazil. The book is prefaced by Matheus Gato and Flávia Rios who state: he is “the most cited author in studies of racial relations in the country” (p.07). The book is composed of nine essays that range from the analysis of racial studies in our territory and its historical formation to the final reflection on racial democracy and its formulation by white and black ideologists.
In the introduction, Guimarães presents the idea of modernity in its literary sense of “aesthetic renewal and representation of the world” (p.15). It is anchored in Paul Gilroy’s thinking, in relation to the counterculture of modernity, which would be the possibility for subalternized subjects, within the dominant culture, to subvert the definitions about themselves and define themselves, generating new meanings of being black.
In the first chapter, the author analyzes the concept of race in the sociological sense. Discussing the best epistemological paths to follow, he highlights the need to place the concept within a historical context, considering its limitations, overcomings and need for renewal within each socio-historical reality and time. From there, it brings the different conceptions of race and its main modulations and modifications throughout history, emphasizing the false idea of race in the biological sense and its overcoming, in the manner of Sociology and Social Sciences, that is, races as a construction sociopolitical. The author also exposes the differences between ethnicity, race and nation, defines and relates the concepts of social classes, color and culture.
In the second chapter, the author deals with the formation of Brazilian identity through the ideological project of miscegenation, describing the Brazilian social imaginary (a mestizo and racially fraternal country) that leads to racial democracy. He announces the State’s investment in the idea that freedom was in fact achieved with the end of captivity and that both abolitionism and republicanism (the author focuses on the period 1870-1930) were processes ideologically focused on mestizo culture. It is these feelings that will be at the heart of the aesthetic, cultural and epistemological elaboration (inside and outside) of black populations, aspects that marked, according to the author, modernity and Brazilian politics.
In the third chapter, we elaborate on the central thesis of the work. Starting from a Eurocentric conception, he brings the sociological definition of modernity as this radical rupture: past forms and only understood in relation to other notions. Regarding the definition of black modernity, the author states: “it is the process of cultural and symbolic inclusion of black people into Western society” (p.69). This modernity would be marked by the development of increasingly animalistic images of black people to counteract European images of humanity. Understanding the various modernities in a temporal sense, he highlights the specificities that mark the modern in Latin America, the United States and Europe.
In the fourth chapter, the author discusses black racial democracy in the 1940s, analyzing black cultural and intellectual circles, declaring that the ideology of miscegenation was a motto for an idea of Brazilian identity centered on race. The author analyzes the speeches of Abdias Nascimento, Solano Trindade and, Laurindo Pompílio, Raimundo Dantas and some ideas from Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), demonstrating the difficulty of constructing a discourse in racial terms until the 1940s. In the speeches, the author identifies the affirmation of the existence of color prejudice and not races. There was caution in pointing out Brazil as a racist country. The chapter ends with an account of the emergence of black racial democracy, describing how the idea of integration within a Brazilian mestizo identity supported this ideology.
The fifth chapter provides an overview of the development of Abdias Nascimento’s thought within the categories “resistance” and “revolt”. The author explains the break with the idea of racial democracy, expressed in O Negro revolted (1968). Chapter six continues thinking about the role of black intellectuals in the theoretical construction of racial democracy and how a militant discourse that denied it was gradually created.
The seventh chapter deals with the reception of the work of the Martinican intellectual Frantz Fanon in Brazilian universities, until the first decades of this century, pointing out the lack of interest on the Brazilian left in Fanon and the low acceptance of his ideas among young black people. Dialogue with this absence, the penultimate chapter of the book takes stock of affirmative actions in Brazil, from 1968 onwards, citing quota policy projects, including the one discarded by the minister of labor himself, Colonel Jarbas Passarinho.
The ninth and final chapter revisits the construction of the idea of racial democracy in the country. Transitioning between “ethnic democracy”, “racial fraternity” and “democracy race” (categories used by American thinkers),
the author explores names such as Gilberto Freyre, Thales de Azevedo, Guerreiro Ramos and states that, despite differences in approach, they still think in terms of a mixed-race nation where it would be possible to build a society without racial hierarchy.
Thales de Azevedo | Photo: Agilberto Lima/Wikipédia
Modernidades Negras covers a wide space of time and a plurality of sources that allows us to insert it into different debates. The concatenation of texts produced at different times draws attention, which allows us to understand the ideology of miscegenation as the basis of racial democracy (still used in the elaboration of affirmative policies in Brazil). The work informs about the different uses of racial democracy, constantly re-elaborated, and present, for example, in the authoritarian speeches of Jair Messias Bolsonaro and General Hamilton Mourão.
However, there are some concerns regarding the role of black people in the work. Although Antônio Sérgio states in the presentation that he is aligned with the idea of the counterculture of modernity, where subalterns redefine themselves, the chapter “Black Modernity” conceives the aforementioned category as black inclusion in Western culture. This vision is limited when we think about both the idea of incorporation into the “civilized” world and the possibility of self-definition within these terms. For the author, modernity would be this process of aesthetic and representative renewal that involves representations in the midst of art, music and political thought. In the Brazilian case, it would be marked by the action of white modernist intellectuals.
Observing the book from the critical studies of contemporary whiteness by Charles W. Mills (concept of “white ignorance”), we think it is a case of “ignorance” experienced by great intellectuals, where the veil of whiteness prevented them from moving between other perspectives and experiences. Despite bringing up the black experience, the book seems to focus more on the white influence on black people, not taking into account Gilroy’s idea that tells us about the alternation of domination and submission. This absence is expressed, for example, in the minimization of the role of the black press in the process of constituting Modernism, in the omission of black initiatives to preserve black culture, in the reinforcement of the idea of acculturation, in the induction of a pseudo-alignment of black intellectuals to the idea of racial democracy and the omission of left-wing racism as a condition for the low reception of Frantz Fanon’s ideas in Brazil.
For all the reasons above, the work partially fulfills the announced objective, which would be to reflect on Brazilian social thought. Despite its flaws, it should also be read by undergraduate students, especially due to the diversity of sources it presents and the critical possibilities it offers on the topic.
Summary of Modernidades negras
Introdução
1. O estudo de raças e sua formação histórica.
2. A liberdade é negra; a igualdade branca e a fraternidade, mestiça.
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Bruna Gabriella Santiago Silva has a master’s degree in História (PROHIS/UFS) and a degree in História (UFCG). She is a PhD student in História (PPGH/UFRGS) and member of the Research Group“Pós-abolição no Mundo Atlântico”. Among other works, she has published: O Pensamento de Angela Davis: perspectivas de liberdade e resistência (2021), Feministas Negras Brasileiras e a interseccionalidade (2023), Marxismo Negro: As mulheres negras na vanguarda da luta revolucionária (2022) e Claudia Jones e Angela Davis: contribuição para a luta revolucionária (2023). ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3803923422902489 ; ID ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0072-823X . E-mail: Leituraspretas@gmail.com.
