Overview

Despite great ethnic and racial diversity, ethnicity in Brazil is often portrayed as a simple matter of black or white, a distinction reinforced by the ruling elite's effort to craft the nation's identity in its own image - white, Christian and European. In ""Negotiating National Identity"" Jeffrey Lesser explores the role ethnic minorities from China, Japan, North Africa and the Middle East have played in constructing a national identity, thereby challenging dominant notions of Brazilian nationality and citizenship. Seeking to realize their vision of a white Brazil, the ruling classes welcomed ""desirable"" European immigrants yet did not anticipate the potential threat of social and labour activism. In reaction, Brazilian elites recruited migrant labour from Asia and the Middle East, then expanded the definition of ""whiteness"", encouraging the new arrivals to consider themselves white regardless of their actual race or ethnicity. Believing, however, that their ethnic heritage was too high a price to pay for the ""privilege"" of being white, many of these immigrants have created alternative categories for themselves, such as Syrian-Brazilian, Korean Brazilian and so on. By examining how acculturating minority groups have represented themselves, Lesser reenvisions what it means to be Brazilian. Based on extensive research, ""Negotiating National Identity"" should be valuable to scholars and students in Brazilian and Latin American studies, as well as those in the fields of immigrant history, ethnic studies and race relations.

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9780822322603

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Reviews

... a very interesting read, and refreshing and important as it discusses aspects of the nation's history which have received so little scholarly attention to date, despite the millions of immigrants who have made Brazil one of the world's most diverse multi-cultural societies. -- British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, April 2000 Clearly written and well organized, this book makes a major contribution to the field of Brazilian studies. An outstanding work. Leo Spitzer, Dartmouth College.) A rich, welcome addition to social history in the broadest sense... [This study] convincingly demonstrates the ironic fact that immigration policies seeking to 'whiten' Brazil instead led to the creation of an immensely multi-cultural society. A major contribution. (Robert M. Levine, University of Miami at Coral Gables)

Author Information

Jeffrey Lesser is Professor of History and Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at Emory University. His books include Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question.

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