Exercises on racial democracy

(UENP) From a sociological point of view, Brazil was built on the myth of racial democracy, especially after the publication of Casa Grande e Senzala by Gilberto Freyre (2003). According to Florestan Fernandes (1965), the ideal of miscegenation had been disseminated as a mechanism for the absorption of the mestizo, not for the social ascension of blacks, but for the hegemony of the ruling class. The myth of racial democracy was based on two foundations:1) the myth of the good lord; 2) the myth of the submissive slave. Analyze the statements:

I. The belief in the good lord exalts the vulgarity of modern elites, as Contardo Calligaris would say, and together with a kind of pseudocordiality, they would be responsible for the maintenance and deepening of social differences.

II. The myth of the submissive slave made society in general not face the violence of slavery, it made the ears deaf to the cries of the black movement, for rights and justice.

III. Legislative proposals on the inclusion of blacks range from the Bill that reserves a fixed percentage of public administration positions to blacks, to those that institute quotas for blacks in public universities and in the media.

Check the correct alternative:

a) all statements are true.

b) only statement II is true.

c) statements I and III are true.

d) statements I and II are false.

e) all statements are false.

It is correct to say that Gilberto Freyre tried to think about the formation of the Brazilian patriarchal society, from the publication of Casa Grande &Senzala , influenced:

a) for the racial theories of Nazism.

b) by the anthropology of Franz Boas.

c) by British Marxism of the 1920s.

d) by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

e) for the authoritarian thinking of Italian fascism.

(UNICENTRO) “When slave labor is mentioned in Brazil, the first memory is that of black slavery. Indeed, it was the most striking, the longest and the most terrible; but slave labor began in Brazil with indigenous slavery” (Tomazi, Nelson Dácio (coordinator). Introduction to Sociology. São Paulo:Atual, 2000, p.62). Considering the reality established by the implantation of slave labor by black Africans brought to Brazil, mark the incorrect alternative.

a) The living conditions of African slaves were terrible, which is why their average lifespan did not exceed fifteen years.

b) Black Africans reacted to slavery in the most diverse ways:through escapes, quilombos, armed struggle, the preservation of religious cults, dance, music.

c) Black people are an integral part of Brazilian history, despite the many prejudices that still persist against them.

d) Brazil is among the first Latin American countries to declare through many laws, until the promulgation of the golden law, the liberation of its slaves.

e) The end of the slave trade in Brazil took place in the mid-19th century, when some experiments with the salaried workforce of foreigners began.

Read the following snippet:

VIEW – Do you see a racist attitude in the mulatto cult or do you reaffirm your thesis that this cult is proof of the absence of racial problems in Brazil? Is Brazil really a perfect racial democracy?

GF (Gilberto Freyre ) – Perfect, by no means. Now that Brazil is, I believe it can be said without a doubt, the most advanced racial democracy in the world today, that is, the most advanced in these paths of a racial democracy. There is still, I am not saying that there is racism in Brazil, but there is still racial and color prejudice among groups of Brazilians and among certain Brazilians individually.

(Excerpt from an interview with Gilberto Freyre published in the magazine Veja of April 14, 1970).

It is possible to say that Gilberto Freyre's answer:

a) reinforces the racial prejudice of former slaveholders.

b) disrespects the mulatto woman.

c) ponders the issue of racism in Brazil with the evidence that there is racial democracy, albeit imperfect.

d) incites hatred between the races.

e) ignores the history of the Brazilian slaveholding past.

Letter A

The first two topics of the question are based on the perspective that the sociologist Florestan Fernandes had of the formation of Brazilian society and on the criticism made of Gilberto Freyre's interpretation of that formation. They are correct, insofar as they corroborate Florestan's view, and not as irrefutable sentences about historical reality and Freyre's work. The third topic concerns public policies that reserve quotas for blacks as social inclusion policies. This topic is correct insofar as this is confirmed to be the official claim of the State for the implementation of quota policies.

Letter B

Gilberto Freyre was an anthropologist by training. Part of this training took place with the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas, one of the forerunners of cultural anthropology. With Boas, Freyre was able to think better about the issue of racial theories of the 19th century and the scientificist prejudice they carried, as well as seek to build new reflections on the mixture of races and the ethnic and social value of miscegenation.

Letter D

Although there have been projects to end slavery in Brazil since Independence (as was the case with José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva's 1823 project), Brazil took a long time to extinguish slavery . The first law in this sense took place in 1850. The Golden Law was only enacted in 1888, which made Brazil the last country on the American continent to end the slave regime.

Letter C

Freyre highlights that Brazil, due to the miscegenation factor, ended up advancing in terms of a “racial democracy”, even though racism exists among us occasionally. The fact is that, unlike other places, like the USA, in Brazil there was never institutionalized racism after the end of slavery.