Synopses & Reviews
In Brazil, the country with the largest population of African descent in the Americas, the idea of race underwent a dramatic shift in the first half of the twentieth century. Brazilian authorities, who had considered race a biological fact, began to view it as a cultural and environmental condition. Jerry Dandaacute;vila explores the significance of this transition by looking at the history of the Rio de Janeiro school system between 1917 and 1945. He demonstrates how, in the period between the world wars, the dramatic proliferation of social policy initiatives in Brazil was subtly but powerfully shaped by beliefs that racially mixed and nonwhite Brazilians could be symbolically, if not physically, whitened through changes in culture, habits, and health.
and#9;Providing a unique historical perspective on how racial attitudes move from elite discourse into peopleandrsquo;s lives, Diploma of Whiteness shows how public schools promoted the idea that whites were inherently fit and those of African or mixed ancestry were necessarily in need of remedial attention. Analyzing primary materialandmdash;including school system records, teacher journals, photographs, private letters, and unpublished documentsandmdash;Dandaacute;vila traces the emergence of racially coded hiring practices and student-tracking policies as well as the development of a social and scientific philosophy of eugenics. He contends that the implementation of the various policies intended to andldquo;improveandrdquo; nonwhites institutionalized subtle barriers to their equitable integration into Brazilian society.
Review
andldquo;By taking an innovative approach to the study of race and social policy, Jerry Dandaacute;vila has written a rare book that shows how racial attitudes move from elite discourse into the real lives of real people. This approach combines with fascinating research and a narrative style that is compelling and often dramatic to make a first-rate contribution to the fields of Latin American and Brazilian history.andrdquo;andmdash;Jeffrey Lesser, author of Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil
Review
andldquo;A superbly researched analysis of the application of the whitening ideal, with all its contradictions, in the Rio de Janeiro schools during the interwar years.andrdquo;andmdash;Thomas Skidmore, author of Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought
Synopsis
Asserts that Brazilian mid-century educational reforms, designed to end rigid, race-based exclusions and to incorporate the poor, did so by stressing whiteness as the primary characteristic of modernity.
About the Author
Jerry Dandaacute;vila is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.