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Shades of Difference

Stanford University Press

Contents

Contributors.............................................................................................................................viiIntroduction: Economies of Color Angela P. Harris.......................................................................................11 The Social Consequences of Skin Color in Brazil Edward Telles.........................................................................92 A Colorstruck World: Skin Tone, Achievement, and Self-Esteem Among African American Women Verna M. Keith..............................253 The Latin Americanization of U.S. Race Relations: A New Pigmentocracy Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and David R. Dietrich.....................404 Filipinos and the Color Complex: Ideal Asian Beauty Joanne L. Rondilla................................................................635 The Color of an Ideal Negro Beauty Queen: Miss Bronze 1961-1968 Maxine Leeds Craig....................................................816 Caucasian, Coolie, Black, or White? Color and Race in the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora Aisha Khan..........................................957 The Dynamics of Color: Mestizaje, Racism, and Blackness in Veracruz, Mexico Christina A. Sue..........................................1148 Skin Tone and the Persistence of Biological Race in Egg Donation for Assisted Reproduction Charis Thompson............................1319 Fair Enough? Color and the Commodification of Self in Indian Matrimonials Jyotsna Vaid................................................14810 Consuming Lightness: Segmented Markets and Global Capital in the Skin-Whitening Trade Evelyn Nakano Glenn............................16611 Skin Lighteners in South Africa: Transnational Entanglements and Technologies of the Self Lynn M. Thomas.............................188Part IV Countering Colorism: Legal Approaches............................................................................................21112 Multilayered Racism: Courts' Continued Resistance to Colorism Claims Taunya Lovell Banks.............................................21313 The Case for Legal Recognition of Colorism Claims Trina Jones........................................................................22314 Latinos at Work: When Color Discrimination Involves More Than Color Tanya Kater Hernndez...........................................236Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................................247Notes....................................................................................................................................249Index....................................................................................................................................291

Chapter One

IN 1968, THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPONSORED A GROUP of about eighty young Brazilian college students to visit various American institutions. As part of their agenda, the Brazilian contingent met with two African American student leaders at Harvard University who spoke to them about recent U.S. Civil Rights gains for blacks. In the ensuing discussion, some of the Brazilian students opined that the U.S. reforms on race did not affect capitalism, the central problem plaguing most modern societies. Radically distinct conceptions of fundamental social problems emerged but, at one point, realizing their ideological impasse, the two North Americans noted that among the roughly eighty Brazilians, only seven or eight were black. Where was their racial democracy if blacks were so underrepresented in their group? After the meeting, the Brazilians began to self-reflect but, rather than raising concerns about black underrepresentation, they were mostly bewildered about how more than one or two persons in their delegation could be considered black. Given Brazilian connotations of blackness, the individuals they referred to must have felt insulted and embarrassed.

Above all, the incident demonstrated how blackness is distinctly understood in Brazil and the United States. A person who is black in the United States is often not so in Brazil. Indeed, some U.S. blacks may be considered white in Brazil. After all, only very dark skin color defines blackness in Brazil. Although the value given to blackness is similarly low everywhere, who gets classified as black is not. Also, the notion of who is black, mixed, or white in Brazil may change greatly within Brazil depending on the classifier, the situation, or the region. The black category is much more elusive in Brazil. Brazilians generally seek to escape from it if they can, but occasionally, for reasons of political expediency, as in the case of the new affirmative action policies, they may seek to be included in it. Stuart Hall's idea of race as the "floating signifier" is thus particularly appropriate, where meanings about race are not fixed, but are relational and subject to redefinition in different cultures.

Another difference between the two countries is in the use of the term race. In Brazil, the term cr, or literally color, is more commonly used than race. Color is often preferred because it captures the continuous aspects of Brazilian racial concepts in which groups shade into one another whereas race in Brazilian Portuguese (raa) is mostly understood, until recently, to mean willpower or desire or even nationality. Relatedly, the idea that each individual belongs to a racial group is less common in Brazil than in the United States. However, color/ cor captures the Brazilian equivalent of the English language term race and is based on a combination of physical characteristics, including skin color, hair type, nose shape, and lip shape.

Comparatively, Brazilians often refer to color differences within the entire Brazilian population whereas in the United States, color differences generally refer to skin tone differences only within the black or Latino populations. Whites in the United States are considered uniformly pale, or at least any color differences among them have no significant meaning. More important, like race, one's color in Brazil commonly carries connotations about one's value in accordance with general Western racial ideology that valorizes lightness and denigrates darkness.

Whether one uses color or race, persons are typically categorized racially and their perceived status depends on their racial or color categorization. Racial distinctions greatly affect Brazilians' life chances, regardless of their own self-identity or the fuzziness of the categories themselves. External definitions of race and color are especially important because they often impart power and privilege in social interactions to lighter skinned persons. According to the general Brazilian societal norm, bodily appearance, influenced somewhat by gender, status, and the social situation, determines who is black, mulatto, or white. Indeed, the Brazilian system allows many persons with African ancestry to self-identify in intermediate categories, including mulatto, as well as white. On the other hand, although some persons may be able to escape being black or nonwhite, others cannot. Some remain black (negro) no matter how wealthy or educated they become.

In Brazil, the existence of a mulatto category...