Kenneth A. Loparo 
Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil 
From Racial Democracy to Multiculturalism

Reimagining Black Difference and Politics in Brazil examines Black Brazilian political struggle and the predicaments it faces in a time characterized by the increasing institutionalization of ethno-racial policies and black participation in policy orchestration. Greater public debate and policy attention to racial inequality suggests the attenuation of racial democracy and positive miscegenation as hegemonic ideologies of the Brazilian nation-state. However, the colorblind and post-racial logics of mixture and racial democracy, especially the denial and/or minimization of racism as a problem, maintain a strong grip on public thinking, social action, and institutional practices. Through a focus on the epistemic dimensions of black struggles and the anti-racist pluri-cultural efforts that have been put into action by activists, scholars, and organizations over the past decade, Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa analyzes the ways in which these politics negotiate as well as seek to go beyond thedelimited understandings of racial difference, belonging, and citizenship that shape the contemporary politics of inclusion.

Table of Content

Introduction: Black Cultural Politics and Decoloniality without Guarantees 1. Post-Racial Ideology, Emergent Multiculturalisms, and the Contemporary Conjuncture of Racial Politics in Brazil 2. The Difference Orùnmilá Makes: Ancestralidade and the Past as Project 3. Afoxé Omo Orùnmilá: History, Culture, and Politics in Movement 4. Hip Hop and the Contemporary Politics of Ancestralidade 5. The Struggle to Decolonize Knowledge and Pedagogy 6. Contested Inclusions: Education Reforms and the Hyperconsciousness/negation of Race 7. Educator Experiences with Anti-Racist Pluriculturalismo Conclusion: the Challenges of the Decolonial in Practice

About the author

Alexandre Emboaba Da Costa is assistant Professor of Theoretical, Cultural, and International Studies in Education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. He received his Ph D from the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University, USA and previously taught courses in Sociology, Cultural Studies, and Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada. He also held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His research interests include racism, racial ideologies, and white supremacy, anti-racist and decolonial politics, the politics of knowledge in education, and global development. He has published in diverse venues including Journal of Historical Sociology, Third World Quarterly, Cultural Studies, Policy Futures in Education, and Critical Sociology.