Anti-Blackness in the New World Público
Sanders, Aiyanna (Spring 2019)
Abstract
Through an analysis of historical and ethnographic sources, I investigate the intersections of slavery, citizenship, and anti-Blackness in order to demonstrate how deeply rooted the structures of anti-Blackness are in all aspects of life within Brazil and the United States. In these countries, anti-Blackness transcends culture, language, geography, and ideology, as it is at the core of the institutions and structures within these nations. Both countries have presented to the world the fictional idea that every citizen within these countries, regardless of race, skin color, sex, has access to the same resources, safety, and economic opportunities. This thesis critiques the logics of racial democracy and color-blindness from an Afro-Pessimist perspective. My thesis shows the contradictions in the dominant racial narratives of both of these countries through an analysis of Brazilian and American slavery, residential segregation, and police violence. I argue that Blackness has been racialized as inherently non-citizen, which normalizes the continuation of anti-Black oppression, marginalization, and genocidal acts that occur within Brazil and the United States. I contend that these racial ideologies, such as “racial democracy” in Brazil and “color-blindness” in America are concepts presented to mystify race and race relations in these countries. These discourses, which I argue are inherently anti-Black, get framed as racially progressive while simultaneously hiding the ways that Black people are being marginalized, oppressed, and killed. My thesis engages an emerging transnational discourse on the centrality of anti-Blackness in societies that emerged in the context of the Post-Columbus “New World”. More specifically, I am looking at North and South America, the “New World”, a world defined by not only racial slavery, but also settler-colonialism. Using and Afro-pessimist perspective, I am exploring the implications this history of colonialism and slavery has for informing the ways in which Black people in both Brazil and the United States are viewed today.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1....................................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 2....................................................................................................................................... 34
Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 46
Chapter 4....................................................................................................................................... 66
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................... 80
Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 89
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Anti-Blackness in the New World () | 2019-04-30 19:01:50 -0400 |
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