The critical philosophy of race has shown recent growth, but it tends to focus too much on the United States. This leaves many race-related concepts and phenomena from other parts of the world underexplored. I help to fill this gap by exploring the idea of \"racial democracy\" in Brazil, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in that country. Specifically, I am interested in the epistemic aspects of this mechanism of creating and propagating racial ignorance.
To achieve this goal, I begin by introducing Charles Mills' concept of white ignorance and other influential works in social epistemology. Then, I provide the necessary sociological and historical background to understand the concept of \"racial democracy\" in Brazilian racial thinking. From there, I explore how techniques typically used in the philosophy of race can be useful in studying the Brazilian context.
In Chapter 5, I introduce my approach to \"racial democracy\" and highlight its epistemic components. I connect it to the epistemology of ignorance and social epistemology to provide a deeper understanding of this form of racial ignorance. Additionally, I compare \"racial democracy\" to color blindness, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in the United States, and show how these two forms of ignorance differ. Finally, I demonstrate that my theorization contributes to a better understanding of seminal works by Abdias Nascimento and Sueli Carneiro, two black Brazilian intellectuals whose work I analyze in the last chapter.
","abstract_html":"<p>The critical philosophy of race has shown recent growth, but it tends to focus too much on the United States. This leaves many race-related concepts and phenomena from other parts of the world underexplored. I help to fill this gap by exploring the idea of "racial democracy" in Brazil, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in that country. Specifically, I am interested in the epistemic aspects of this mechanism of creating and propagating racial ignorance.</p> <p>To achieve this goal, I begin by introducing Charles Mills' concept of white ignorance and other influential works in social epistemology. Then, I provide the necessary sociological and historical background to understand the concept of "racial democracy" in Brazilian racial thinking. From there, I explore how techniques typically used in the philosophy of race can be useful in studying the Brazilian context.</p> <p>In Chapter 5, I introduce my approach to "racial democracy" and highlight its epistemic components. I connect it to the epistemology of ignorance and social epistemology to provide a deeper understanding of this form of racial ignorance. Additionally, I compare "racial democracy" to color blindness, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in the United States, and show how these two forms of ignorance differ. Finally, I demonstrate that my theorization contributes to a better understanding of seminal works by Abdias Nascimento and Sueli Carneiro, two black Brazilian intellectuals whose work I analyze in the last chapter.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["de Souza Carmo Reis, Teófilo"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Philosophy","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Linda Alcoff"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Miranda Fricker","Serene Khader","Frank Kirkland"],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:13Z","subjects":["Philosophy","racial democracy","philosophy of race","social epistemology","white ignorance"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5565","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Linda Alcoff"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Miranda Fricker","Serene Khader","Frank Kirkland"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["de Souza Carmo Reis, Teófilo"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-09-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Philosophy","racial democracy","philosophy of race","social epistemology","white ignorance"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5565"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The critical philosophy of race has shown recent growth, but it tends to focus too much on the United States. This leaves many race-related concepts and phenomena from other parts of the world underexplored. I help to fill this gap by exploring the idea of \"racial democracy\" in Brazil, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in that country. Specifically, I am interested in the epistemic aspects of this mechanism of creating and propagating racial ignorance.
To achieve this goal, I begin by introducing Charles Mills' concept of white ignorance and other influential works in social epistemology. Then, I provide the necessary sociological and historical background to understand the concept of \"racial democracy\" in Brazilian racial thinking. From there, I explore how techniques typically used in the philosophy of race can be useful in studying the Brazilian context.
In Chapter 5, I introduce my approach to \"racial democracy\" and highlight its epistemic components. I connect it to the epistemology of ignorance and social epistemology to provide a deeper understanding of this form of racial ignorance. Additionally, I compare \"racial democracy\" to color blindness, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in the United States, and show how these two forms of ignorance differ. Finally, I demonstrate that my theorization contributes to a better understanding of seminal works by Abdias Nascimento and Sueli Carneiro, two black Brazilian intellectuals whose work I analyze in the last chapter.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Theorizing Racial Democracy"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Linda Alcoff"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Miranda Fricker","Serene Khader","Frank Kirkland"],"dc:creator":["de Souza Carmo Reis, Teófilo"],"dc:date.available":["2025-09-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The critical philosophy of race has shown recent growth, but it tends to focus too much on the United States. This leaves many race-related concepts and phenomena from other parts of the world underexplored. I help to fill this gap by exploring the idea of \"racial democracy\" in Brazil, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in that country. Specifically, I am interested in the epistemic aspects of this mechanism of creating and propagating racial ignorance.
To achieve this goal, I begin by introducing Charles Mills' concept of white ignorance and other influential works in social epistemology. Then, I provide the necessary sociological and historical background to understand the concept of \"racial democracy\" in Brazilian racial thinking. From there, I explore how techniques typically used in the philosophy of race can be useful in studying the Brazilian context.
In Chapter 5, I introduce my approach to \"racial democracy\" and highlight its epistemic components. I connect it to the epistemology of ignorance and social epistemology to provide a deeper understanding of this form of racial ignorance. Additionally, I compare \"racial democracy\" to color blindness, which is a form of racial ignorance that is prevalent in the United States, and show how these two forms of ignorance differ. Finally, I demonstrate that my theorization contributes to a better understanding of seminal works by Abdias Nascimento and Sueli Carneiro, two black Brazilian intellectuals whose work I analyze in the last chapter.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5565"],"dc:subject":["Philosophy","racial democracy","philosophy of race","social epistemology","white ignorance"],"dc:title":["Theorizing Racial Democracy"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Philosophy"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:13Z"}