UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Re-Making Race for Inclusion: Racial Categories, Affirmative Action and Black Identities in Brazil Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6rz4t5g4 Author Peria, Michelle Elaine Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Re-Making Race for Inclusion: Racial Categories, Affirmative Action and Black Identities in Brazil DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology by Michelle Elaine Peria Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Stanley R. Bailey, Chair Professor Edwin Amenta Professor Ann Hironaka Professor Belinda Robnett-Olsen 2015 Dedication For my sister, Heather Louise Peria (1970-2014) ii Table of Contents Page List of Tables iv Acknowledgments v Curriculum Vitae vi Abstract of the Dissertation x Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Combining Race and Class in Affirmative Action 37 Chapter 3: Brown into Black? Race-mixture and Racial Quotas 71 Chapter 4: Negro Identities and Affirmative Action 119 Chapter 5: Conclusion 146 References 157 iii List of Tables Page Table 1.1 Key race/color terms 14 Table 1.2 Brief history of Brazilian turn toward race-targeted policy for the promotion of racial equality 34 Table 2.1 Timeline of affirmative action laws passed by the state legislature of Rio de Janeiro, 2000–2004 58 Table 2.2 Qualification criteria for university affirmative action programs addressing Afro-Brazilians 63 iv Acknowledgments Financial support for this research and writing was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Science Division grant # 1124416, the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, the Ruth Landes Memorial Foundation, and the University of California, Irvine’s Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, School of Social Sciences, and Department of Sociology. I am indebted to the many generous, supportive and inspirational people who helped me to make this dissertation a reality. I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee for their continuous support as this project developed over the past several years. I thank my committee members Belinda Robnett-Olsen, Ann Hironaka and Edwin Amenta for their careful reading and thoughtful criticism, and Diana Kapiszewski who was on my qualifying committee as well. I am especially grateful to Stanley Bailey, Chair of my committee, who has been the most encouraging mentor one could hope for - I could not have completed this project without his intellectual and academic support. I am particularly thankful for his constant trust in my academic potential. I thank Antonio Carlos de Souza Lima and Giralda Seyferth, advisors from my MA program in Social Anthropology at the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ); they have vitally influenced my academic path and thinking. I thank Rosana Heringer (UFRJ), a source of inspiration, and to whom I owe my first contact with the discussion on affirmative action in Brazil. I am grateful to all of the participants in the University of California, Irvine’s Comparative Sociology Workshop, UCI’s Latin American Working Group and the Dissertation Proposal Seminar of the Department of Sociology at UCI for their generous advice and suggestions during early stages of this project. I thank John Sommerhauser, Director of Graduate Affairs for Social Sciences at UCI and Brenda Fitzjarrald, Department of Sociology General Manager, for their invaluable institutional support and guidance. This dissertation would not have been possible without the kindness and generosity of many people in Rio de Janeiro. I gratefully acknowledge the student leaders and activists, NGO workers, lawyers, scholars, politicians, journalists, and state and university administrators and staff who all took the time to talk to me about their work and ideas about affirmative action and race relations in Brazil. In particular I express my gratitude to the students and coordinators of Educafro, especially those of “Pre-Comunitária” and “Pre-São Antonio” (pseudonyms) who generously shared their time, friendship and experiences with me. I thank the Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Desigualdade (NIED) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for providing me with institutional support and I also thank Graziella Moraes Dias da Silva (UFRJ) who shared interviews from the project “Afro-Brazilians' Responses to Racism and Discrimination.” There are many more friends and scholars whose support I would like to express gratitude for: members of my cohort and fellow students at the University of California including Kristen Shorette, Esther Kim, Kristine Glauber, Connie McGuire, Fernando Chirino, Nali Gajaweera, v James Stobaugh and Megan Theile; life-long friends Rolling Walker and Lynn Erickson; the entire Penna family, especially João Camillo Penna (UFRJ) and Joia Penna; João Feres at the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro/GEMMA; my cohort and fellow students at the Prográma de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social, Museu Nacional, UFRJ, Ingrid Weber, Flávia Pires, Mariana Paladino, Thaddeus Blanchette; Ana Paula da Silva, Courtney Campbell, Theresa Williamson, and Richard Aviles. Finally, I could not have completed this project without such a wonderfully supportive family. I thank my mother, Carol Vermeersch, for always having faith in me and the possibilities for my future with every twist and turn I’ve taken. I am grateful for her enthusiasm, sacrifice and love. I thank my stepfather, Ron Vermeersch, for his love and encouragement, and his mother Emily for her caring support as well. I am grateful to my aunt Elaine Flanigan for her insights, generosity and guidance over the years. And my nieces and nephew, Tenita, Emma and Noah, who bring immeasurable joy and happiness to my life. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my sister Heather. Heather was a tremendous source of encouragement and support for this project. I am grateful that during the last years of working on this dissertation I could stay with her and her children in Madison, Wisconsin. Heather lived her life well. She was an outstanding elementary school teacher, a great mother to three wonderful kids and a caring and generous friend and sister. In the last year of her life she faced her terminal illness with bravery and was a vital source of strength and inspiration in my life. I am forever grateful for her companionship, warm smile, sharp wit, creativity and love. vi Curriculum Vitae Michelle Peria EDUCATION Ph.D. SOCIOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE 2015 M.A. SOCIOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE 2008 M.A. ANTHROPOLOGY FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO 2004 B.A. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES & SPANISH UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 1996 AREAS OF INTEREST Race and Ethnicity; Globalization; Culture; Public Policy; Social Movements; Latin American Studies; Social Theory; Ethnography and Qualitative Methods. PUBLICATIONS Peer Reviewed Articles 2015 Bailey, Stanley R., Fabricío Fialho, and Michelle Peria. “Understanding Support for Race-Based Affirmative Action Policy in Brazil.” Ethnicities. 2014 Peria, Michelle and Stanley R. Bailey. 2014. “Re-making Racial Inclusion: Combining Race and Class in Brazil’s New Affirmative Action.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 9(2):156-176. 2010 Bailey, Stanley R. and Michelle Peria. “Racial Quotas and the Culture War in Brazilian Academia.” Sociology Compass. 4:592–604. 2009 Snow, David. Michelle Peria, James Stobaugh and Jimmie Bany. “A Team Field Study of the Appeal of Megachurches: Framing, Identifying and Solving Personal Issues.” Ethnography. 10 (2–3): 463–486. 2004 Peria, Michelle. “Listen, Am I going to listen to society, to play politics, to expose my self? I never had that intention.” [Olha, eu vou ouvir a sociedade, eu vou fazer política, eu vou me apresentar, eu vou me mostrar? Nunca tive essa finalidade.] O público e o privado, 3(Jan.-June):145-164. vii Other Publications 2015 Bailey, Stanley and Michelle Peria. “Affirmative Action in Brazil.” In The Enclyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy. 3rd Edition. Taylor and Francis. 2012 Peria, Michelle. “Megachurches.” In G. Ritzer (ed.) Encyclopedia of Globalization. Wiley-Blackwell. FUNDED GRANTS External Awards 2014 American Sociological Association and National Science Foundation Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline, “Freedom from Discrimination as Human Right? The Global Human Rights Regime and the Diffusion of Affirmative Action Policy since 1965” with Kristen Shorette. $6,384 2013 Ruth Landes Memorial Foundation, Dissertation Grant, $22,000 2012 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, $12,105 (Principle Investigator: Stanley R. Bailey, Co-PI: Michelle Peria) Internal Awards 2010-2012 Research and Travel Awards, Department of Sociology, UCI 2008-2012 Research and Travel Awards, School of Social Sciences, UCI FELLOWSHIPS 2014 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Sociology, UCI $1,400 2013 Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate Division, UCI, $10,000 2011-2012 Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, $22,300 2011 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Sociology, UCI $1,000 2010 Summer Research Fellowship, Department of Sociology UCI $1,500 2009 Social Science Graduate Fellowship, Graduate Division, UCI $5,500