Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and BrazilThis book offers a historical analysis of one of the most striking and dramatic transformations to take place in Brazil and the United States during the twentieth century—the redefinition of the concepts of nation and democracy in racial terms. The multilateral political debates that occurred between 1930 and 1945 pushed and pulled both states towards more racially inclusive political ideals and nationalisms. Both countries utilized cultural production to transmit these racial political messages. At times working collaboratively, Brazilian and U.S. officials deployed the concept of “racial democracy” as a national security strategy, one meant to suppress the existential threats perceived to be posed by World War II and by the political agendas of communists, fascists, and blacks. Consequently, official racial democracy was limited in its ability to address racial inequities in the United States and Brazil. Shifting the Meaning of Democracy helps to explain the historical roots of a contemporary phenomenon: the coexistence of widespread antiracist ideals with enduring racial inequality. |
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action-oriented activities African American Afro-Brazilian anticommunism anticommunist antiracist argued Arlindo black activists black Brazilians black community black culture Brasileira Brazil Brazilian Brazilian racial chapter color Comintern Communist Party communist racial Congress CPUSA defense demarginalization democratic DEOPS/SP Departamento dictatorship Domingues economic Estado Novo fascism Federal FEPC file folder film Frente Negra Freyre Getúlio Vargas Hitler immigration integralists Inter-American Affairs interracial Isaltino Veiga labor Latin America leaders Leite liberal Logan Luís Carlos Prestes movement munist NARA Nascimento nationalist Nazi Nazism Negro OCIAA official organizations Paulo Pittsburgh Courier Política e Social Popular Front Prestes Project prontuário propaganda Quoted race racial democracy racial discrimination racial equality racial political racial realism racially inclusive racism racy radio realists Record Group 229 rhetoric Rio de Janeiro Rockefeller Roosevelt samba Săo Paulo Scottsboro self-determination society Soviet tion United Veiga dos Santos wartime workers World York