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Divergence or Convergence in the U.S. and Brazil: Understanding Race Relations Through White Family Reactions to Black-White Interracial Couples

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Abstract

Different approaches to race mixture in the U.S. and Brazil have led to the notion that they are polar opposites in terms of race relations. However, the end of de jure segregation in the U.S., the acknowledgement of racial inequality, and subsequent implementation of affirmative action in Brazil have called into question the extent to which these societies are vastly different. By examining race mixture as a lived reality, this study offers a novel approach to understanding racial boundaries in these two contexts. I analyze 87 interviews with individuals in black-white couples in Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro to examine the cultural repertoires and discursive traditions they draw on to understand white families’ reactions to black spouses. I find that U.S. couples employ “color-blindness” to understand opposition to Blacks marrying into the family. Brazilian couples perceive overt racism and the use of humor from white family members. Nevertheless, couples with black males experienced more hostility in both sites. In addition, white male autonomy was related to the lower hostility that black female-white male couples experienced in both societies. By examining contemporary race mixture as a lived reality, this study complicates simplistic understandings of race relations as similar or different in these two societies. Furthermore, with the increase of multiracial families in both societies, it reveals the family as an important site for redrawing and policing racial boundaries.

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Notes

  1. The term pardo refers to a grayish-brown color that is rarely used in common parlance and is mostly an official categorization. The indigenous and Asian categories together comprise about 2 % of the population (IBGE 2010).

  2. All names are pseudonyms.

  3. This was one of ten couple interviews that I conducted in addition to their individual interviews.

  4. Cariocas are people from Rio de Janeiro.

  5. Neguinho, a diminutive of negro, is often used as a term of endearment, including in families. However, depending on the way it is used, it can also be a racial epithet.

  6. She described her as a type of fictive kin, saying that her “sister” was a “not blood-related, but a sister of convenience since we were young.”

  7. He used the term miscegenada or “miscegenated.”

  8. “Our color” likely refers to the fact that both of us were unambiguous, dark-skinned negros. In the rest of his interview, Róbinson exhibited a strong sense of groupness pertaining to Blacks, both in Brazil and around the world.

  9. Críoulo is a derogatory term for Blacks. There is no direct translation, except for the n-word.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Crystal Fleming, Onoso Imoagene, and Sylvia Zamora for their generous suggestions for this article. The author would also like to thank Edward Telles, Stefan Timmermans, Mignon Moore, and M. Belinda Tucker for their feedback on earlier drafts. Support for data collection was provided by the National Science Foundation, the UCLA Latin American Institute, the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Africana Studies. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2012 annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society and at the 2011 sessions of the Council on Contemporary American Families. I thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 405-7 Cooper Street, Camden, NJ, 08102-1521, USA

    Chinyere Osuji

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Osuji, C. Divergence or Convergence in the U.S. and Brazil: Understanding Race Relations Through White Family Reactions to Black-White Interracial Couples. Qual Sociol 37, 93–115 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-013-9268-2

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