1st Edition

Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America

Edited By Kwame Dixon, Ollie A. Johnson III Copyright 2019
    376 Pages 31 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    376 Pages 31 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Latin America has a rich and complex social history marked by slavery, colonialism, dictatorships, rebellions, social movements and revolutions. Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America explores the dynamic interplay between racial politics and hegemonic power in the region. It investigates the fluid intersection of social power and racial politics and their impact on the region’s histories, politics, identities and cultures.

    Organized thematically with in-depth country case studies and a historical overview of Afro-Latin politics, the volume provides a range of perspectives on Black politics and cutting-edge analyses of Afro-descendant peoples in the region. Regional coverage includes Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti and more. Topics discussed include Afro-Civil Society; antidiscrimination criminal law; legal sanctions; racial identity; racial inequality and labor markets; recent Black electoral participation; Black feminism thought and praxis; comparative Afro-women social movements; the intersection of gender, race and class, immigration and migration; and citizenship and the struggle for human rights. Recognized experts in different disciplinary fields address the depth and complexity of these issues.

    Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America contributes to and builds on the study of Black politics in Latin America.

    Introduction: Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America - Black Politics Matter

    [Kwame Dixon and Ollie A. Johnson III]

    Part 1: History

    1. Beyond Representation: Rethinking Rights, Alliances and Migrations: Three Historical Themes in Afro-Latin American Political Engagement

    [Darién J. Davis]

    2. Recognition, Reparations, and Political Autonomy of Black and Native Communities in the Americas

    [Bernd Reiter]

    3. Pan-Africanism and Latin America

    [Elisa Larkin Nascimento]

    Part 2: The Caribbean

    4. Black Activism and the State in Cuba

    [Danielle Pilar Clealand]

    5. Correcting Intellectual Malpractice: Haiti and Latin America

    [Jean-Germain Gros]

    6. Black Feminist Formations in the Dominican Republic since La Sentencia

    [April J. Mayes]

    Part 3: South America

    7. Afro-Ecuadorian Politics

    [Carlos de la Torre and Jhon Antón Sánchez]

    8. In The Branch of Paradise: Geographies of Privilege and Black Social Suffering in

    Cali, Colombia

    [Jaime Amparo Alves and Aurora Vergara-Figueroa]    

    9. The Impossible Black Argentine Political Subject

    [Judith M. Anderson]

    10. Current Representations of "Black" Citizens: Contentious Visibility within the Multicultural Nation

    [Laura de la Rosa Solano] 

    Part 4: Comparative Perspectives

    11. The Contours and Contexts of Afro-Latin American Women’s Activism

    [Kia Lilly Caldwell]

    12. Race and the Law in Latin America

    [Tanya Katerí Hernández]

    13. The Labyrinth of Ethnic-Racial Inequality: a Picture of Latin America according to the recent Census Rounds

    [Marcelo Paixão and Irene Rossetto]

    14. The Millennium/Sustainable Development Goals and Afro-descendants in the Americas:

    An (Un)intended Trap

    [Paula Lezama]

    Conclusion

    [Kwame Dixon and Ollie A. Johnson III]

    Biography

    Kwame Dixon is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, who did his undergraduate work at the University of South Florida and received his Ph.D. from Clark-Atlanta University. He was awarded two Fulbright grants and has done extensive field research and lived in several Latin American countries, including Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. He is the author of Afro-Politics and Civil Society in Salvador da Bahia (University Press of Florida, 2016) and coeditor of Comparative Perspectives on Afro Latin America (University Press of Florida, 2012). He teaches courses on International Human Rights, Latin American Politics and Comparative Racial Politics.

    Ollie A. Johnson III is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Wayne State University. He is the coeditor of Race, Politics, and Education in Brazil: Affirmative Action in Higher Education (2015). He also authored Brazilian Party Politics and the Coup of 1964 and coedited Black Political Organizations in the Post-Civil Rights Era. Professor Johnson received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. His current research focuses on African American, Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Latin American Politics.

    'Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America is an exemplary work that brings together scholarship focusing on black movement activism as articulated by Afro-descendant men and women, against persistent inequalities. Afro-descendant women have been at the forefront of articulating the needs of black citizenship. This book will be a great resource for activists, scholars and students interested in black activism and policy changes in Latin America.'Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, Assistant Professor in the Department of Africology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

    'Located at the cutting edge of the current wave of research on blackness in Latin America, the stellar cast of contributors assembled by Dixon and Johnson in this book provides an outstanding overview of racial politics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its breadth of coverage and the penetratingly critical stance adopted by its contributors make the book required reading for students and scholars alike.'Peter Wade, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

    'This volume ably brings together established and emergent scholars to trace historical and contemporary patterns of black political mobilization in Latin America.'Juliet Hooker, Professor of Political Science, Brown University