Race and the Brazilian Body - by Jennifer Roth-Gordon (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Based on the spontaneous conversations of shantytown youth hanging out on the streets of their neighborhoods and interviews from the comfortable living rooms of the middle class, Race and the Brazilian Body asks how racial ideas about the superiority of whiteness and the inferiority of blackness continue to play out in the daily lives of Rio de Janeiro's residents. This ethnographic account describes how cariocas (Rio residents) "read" the body for racial signs, looking beyond phenotype to pay careful attention to cultural and linguistic practices, including the use of nonstandard speech commonly described as slang (gâiria)"--Provided by publisher.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>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. <i>Race and the Brazilian Body</i> 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 <i>cariocas</i> (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 <i>gíria</i> (slang).<br /> <br /> 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.<p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>"<i>Race and the Brazilian Body </i>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 <i>Legalizing Identities: Becoming Black or Indian in Brazil's Northeast</i> <p/> "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 <i>The Everyday Language of White Racism</i> <p/> "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 <i>Performing Afro-Cuba: Image, Voice, Spectacle in the Making of Race and History</i><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"[Roth-Gordon] presents [her findings] in an accessible narrative that would provide compelling reading for an undergraduate course on race or Brazil and might help us all better understand why famously 'cordial' Brazilians recently elected an uncordially racist president."-- "Latin American Research Review"<br><br>" A must-read for scholars studying race and politics in Brazil."-- "Journal of Anthropological Research" (11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM)<br><br>"A remarkably accessible book that will be of great interest to scholars of race in Latin America who wish to incorporate an attention to language and practice to theirown work. The book' s clear explanations of how the research was organized and executed likewise make it an excellent teaching tool for undergraduates and graduate students."-- "Journal of Latin American Studies" (11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM)<br><br>"Although decades of ink have already been spilled on the still contentious issue of racism in Brazil (and Latin America more broadly), Roth- <br> Gordon's book points to fruitful areas for future research."-- "Anthropological Quarterly" (11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM)<br><br>"By highlighting new challenges and forms of resistance to racist ideologies, Roth-Gordon makes an outstanding contribution to a global dialogue on race that illustrates the hegemonic forces at play that maintain racial inequalities."-- "American Ethnologist" (11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM)<br><br>"Roth-Gordon offers important in-sights in fewer than two hundred pages of clearly articulated text. . .the book is a rare pedagogical gem."-- "General Anthropology" (11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM)<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Jennifer Roth-Gordon</b> is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. <br>
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