Theorizing Racial Democracy

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• de Souza Carmo Reis, Teófilo

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Linda Alcoff

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Miranda Fricker
• Serene Khader
• Frank Kirkland

• Philosophy
• racial democracy
• philosophy of race
• social epistemology
• white ignorance

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5565

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-6560