Comparing the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil
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The Political Economy of Race: Comparing the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil Honors Capstone By Andrew Menefee Written in fulfillment of the General University Honors Requirement at the American University Professor Clarence Lusane Spring 2013 1 Abstract: This paper explores the persistence of racial inequalities in the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil. Both countries share similar patterns of racial inequalities. Blacks continue to suffer lower education rates, higher mortality rates, and earn less income. The geographic dispersion of the Black population in both Brazil and the United States today mirrors the historical geographic dispersion of slavery in each country. The Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil contain the majority of the Black population and these regions remain underdeveloped compared to other regions. Both regions have a shared history as part of the plantation complex, an economic order controlled by oligarchic elite. This paper asks how do racial inequalities impact development? Drawing on Sokloff and Stanley Engerman, this paper argues that initial inequalities during slavery persisted because government institutions reproduced the deprivation and poor quality of life associated with slavery. This paper employed a comparative historical approach to compare the implementation of education and medical services in the post-abolition period in the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil. The conclusions demonstrate how state services supported the cultural hegemony of white elite and excluded Blacks. The 'invisible' nature of systemic disparities, which become accepted as normal, makes it harder to create reform. This examination of the roots of systemic inequalities helps explain why racial inequalities have remained so durable. These conclusions have implications for comparative race relations and international development. These conclusions can be applied to other countries to support structural explanations for persistent underdevelopment in post-colonial societies. 2 Contents Section I: Introduction 5 Literature Review 12 Definitions 18 Research Question 18 Hypothesis 19 Research Design 19 Section II: Comparing the Political Economy 21 Theory 21 Origins of the Plantation Economy 27 Plantation Economy and Abolition 31 The Deep South U.S. Cultural Hegemony 33 Social Relations of Production 42 Forces of Production 49 The Northeast of Brazil Cultural Hegemony 51 Social Relations of Production 59 Forces of Production 63 Conclusion 65 Section III: Comparing States Services 66 3 State Services in the Deep South US Education 68 Health Care 72 State Services in the Northeast of Brazil Health Care 76 Education 81 Discussion 84 Conclusions 85 Study Limitations 85 Study Strengths 86 Implications for Future Research 87 Bibliography 90 4 Introduction When studying race in the United States scholars often take a domestic perspective and draw from a political-science approach examining the political exclusion of African-Americans and the struggle for the vote, or a sociological approach examining the plight of African-Americans in urban ghettos. This paper considers racial inequalities from an international development perspective. International development as a field refers to the multi-disciplinary approach addressing the question of how to improve human quality of life. The field refers mostly to the institutions that arose after World War II, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which focus on alleviating poverty and improving living conditions. Traditionally, the field of international development confines its geographic focus to what is termed the “third- world,” or previously colonized countries. In order to understand how solutions addressing poverty can be implemented, scholars of international development in the 1960s and 1970s put forward various theories explaining how societies change. How theories of international development interpret history serves an important purpose, because in order to alleviate poverty it is important to understand why countries have not progressed. Scholars must understand how colonialism, a common factor in many developing countries, functioned and through what avenues did it impact societies. International development focuses on identifying the dynamics of change and is holistic in that it encompasses issues such as governance, healthcare, education, gender equality, infrastructure, economics, human rights, and the environment. Applying an international 5 development perspective to race and examining how societies modernized while maintaining racial inequalities may offer a new perspective as to why a social group continues to suffer a lower quality of life. In turn, this conceptualization of racial inequality may help policy makers better understand the causes of racial inequalities and have a better context for proposing solutions. The object of this paper is to explore how racial inequalities persist in societies. Race is closely tied to colonialism because it is a mental construction that expresses the basic experience of colonial domination. The experience of colonialism put one group in power over another and allowed the dominant group to control access to resources and opportunities. In colonies, the different groups were often demarcated by an identifying feature, such as skin pigmentation. Race is a social construct which has a colonial origin and character, but this construct has persisted and remained durable after the end of colonialism. Racial inequality then is a remainder of an element of coloniality, proof that race still matters. This paper will trace how racial inequalities persisted after slavery ended. The subject of this paper is the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil. Examining case studies drawn from a sub-regional comparison highlights similarities that would not be noticed if scholars relied solely on aggregate, national comparisons. The regions of the Deep South United States and the Northeast of Brazil represent an interesting case study because these regions contain the highest concentration of poverty within two of the world’s leading economic powers. These are the regions where plantation economies were first established and racial hierarchies 6 created in the Western Hemisphere. Implicit within this comparison is that there is interplay between the course of a society’s development and racial inequalities. Comparing regional inequalities and racial inequalities in the U.S. and Brazil from a lens of international development highlights how the developed world shares similar processes of “underdevelopment” with third-world countries. Eve Bratman uses the term “Third World” to describe current geographies of subalternality.1 By making the object of her argument Washington D.C., Bratman argues that conditions of “third-worldality” persist outside the scope of what is traditionally considered to be the field of development. She suggests that an outward, international focus in the field of international development has led development practitioners to miss important domestic development problems close to home. To make her case, Bratman analyzed several conditions of 'third-worldality” consistent with a legacy of colonialism in Washington D.C., including political exclusion, inequality, and socio-economic segregation. The term “third-world” refers to countries which share persistent poverty and high rates of inequality, which are a colonial legacy. In sum, “third-world” refers to countries which are considered underdeveloped. A UN report found that “major cities in the United States, such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington DC, Miami, and New York, have the highest levels of inequality in the country, similar to those of Abidjan, Nairobi, Buenos Aires, and Santiago.’ Based on Bratman’s criteria, it can be argued that the Deep South, a region within the world’s foremost economic power, the United States, displays characteristics of a third world country. 1 In the field of post-colonialism, the term subaltern describes groups who are excluded from a society’s power structures for political representation and do not have a voice in their society. In describing “history told from below,” the term subaltern is derived from the work of Antonio Gramsci. 7 The South contains higher levels of poverty and inequality compared to other regions of the country. The South contains 9 of the 10 poorest states.2 Southern states exhibit pockets of extreme inequality and the poorest communities suffer from a lack of even basic infrastructure. Up to 90% of houses in Lowndes County, Alabama, have no sewage systems.3 Structural factors such as poverty and a rural population complicate the delivery of health services. The federal government has declared that all of Alabama’s 55 rural counties have a shortage of physicians. In a survey of rural health clinics, 40% with a staffing vacancy had trouble recruiting a replacement. This requires rural residents to travel a distance for care. One Mississippi woman said, “I travel 75 miles to see my doctor. Sometimes I get help from the Department of Health social worker… But she has nine counties to cover all by herself.” In turn, poverty, a lack of infrastructure, and poor health services correspond to higher disease rates. The South contains 3 of the 5 states with the highest diabetes rates, and 3 of the 5 states with the highest stroke rates.4 Especially concerning, the South has a disproportionate incidence of HIV/AIDS.