After racial democracy? The state’s rhetorical reconstruction of national identity in Brazil (1990–2019)

ABSTRACT

The weakening of ‘racial democracy,’ or the idea of Brazil as a color-blind society that was central to what being Brazilian meant throughout much of the 20^th century, raises a question about how the state attempts to reconstruct national identity rhetorically after the deconstruction of this foundational myth. I propose to answer this question by examining how 10 presidential inauguration speeches given between 1990 and 2019 challenge the myth of racial democracy inconsistently, characterize Brazilian national identity generally around the theme of societal resilience, and contest ‘racial democracy’ and ‘national identity’ content along ideological lines. My findings imply that state rhetoric may not acknowledge the myth’s deconstruction fully, while engaging in the reconstruction of national identity in a highly fragmented fashion around the ability to withstand adversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Brazil
• national identity
• racial democracy
• content analysis
• discourse analysis
• presidents

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Yoshiko Herrera, three anonymous reviewers, and LACES’s Responsible Editor and Chief Editor for their detailed feedback on this paper. Dalila Fernandes de Negreiros offered helpful insight about researching the politics of race in Brazil. The Department of Political Science and, through its Brazil Initiative’s Joaquim Nabuco Award, the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provided generous support for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Ned Littlefield

Ned Littlefield is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.