Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? (review)

This is first and foremost a book about the emergence of a multiracial category and multiracialist movement in the United States. The author has conducted research in Brazil and has assembled a review of the literature on race relations, racial politics and racial identity in Brazil. But the purpose of his review is to suggest a contemporary transnational moment of renegotiation of long-held racial categories in order to define the significance of multiracialism to race relations in the United States. Contrasting what he calls a binary racial project in the United States and a ternary racial project in Brazil, Daniels surveys the histories of race relations and racial categories in Brazil and the United States from their remotest origins to contemporary movements, highlighting the construction of an elastic racial hierarchy in Brazil and a color line in the United States.

The book builds toward a discussion of the movement for the creation of a multiracial category in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the social movements in California, both left and right, which have advocated the creation of this category. In the end, while Daniels recognizes the utility of a social category of multiracial to the political right in the United States, he hopes that such a category could create a "genuine integrative pluralism" (p. 296) in the United States and Brazil. Daniels idealizes that "this kind of politics would create a constructive and beneficial relationship between . . . different groups, one marked by mutual respect, independence, a balance of power and a shared commitment to community and nation (and ultimately to the larger human community)" (Ibid.).

In his discussion of Brazil, Daniels notes one of the principal objectives of social movements forging a negro identity among Brazilians of African descent is the promotion of quotas and affirmative action programs in higher education and government hiring in order to offset profound social and racial inequalities. Readers interested in the politics of race surrounding university admissions quotas in Brazil will want to turn directly to some of the most influential recent Brazilian publications: Moema de Poli Teixeira, Negros na universidade: Identidade e trajetórias de ascenção social no Rio de Janeiro (Pallas, 2003); José Jorge de Carvalho, Inclusão étnica e racial no Brasil: A Questão das cotas no ensino superior (Attar, 2006); Peter Fry, A persistência da raça: Ensaios antropológicos sobre o Brasil e a África (Civilização Brasileira, 2005); and Nilma Lino Gomes and Aracy Alves Martins, eds., Afirmando direitos: Acesso e permanência de jovens na universidade (Autêntica, 2004). Teixeira examines the experiences with university studies and identity of students of color admitted to Rio de Janeiro universities both inside of and outside admissions quotas. Carvalho argues in favor of quotas and discusses the patterns of racial exclusion in Brazilian higher education; he was one of the creators of the quota program at the University of Brasília. Fry draws on his experiences in Brazil and southern Africa to describe what he perceives as the social costs of state projects defining racial difference. Gomes and Martins bring together a set of essays that cover the spectrum of debates over the use of quotas and affirmative action, and center on the debate around the implementation of these programs in Minas Gerais.

In sum, Daniels's book will interest sociologists of race in the United States and will offer them an introduction to race relations and racial politics in Brazil.