Afro-Brazilians’ life experiences in Paris ethno-racial^†

†. The notion of race is here employed as a sociological category for the analyses and the interpretation of the imaginary processes of social construction in the multicultural societies. Following Floya Anthias contention, “race categories belong to the more encompassing category of ethnic collectivity, therefore, race is one of the ways in which ethnic boundaries are constructed” (2001, 369).

identification and social recognition: new positioning, new negotiation

ABSTRACT

Afro-Brazilians’ life experiences in Paris are manifold. This paper examines the intercultural dynamic within the transnational European and French contexts and explores how nonwhite Brazilians negotiate their socio-racial relations and their strategies of integration and socialization. This piece draws from our fieldwork and semi-directive interviews carried out from 2005 to 2009 with Afro-Brazilians living in Paris. A particular emphasis was given to the subjective and inter-subjective cognitive processes underpinning the actions and the objective choices of this population in their daily lives. We have focused on the elements generated by the processes of identification which are paradoxically fluid and marked at the same time, revealing a combination that emphasizes the constructed feature of the ethno-racial identities both in Brazil and in France. Likewise, we could observe that the Brazilian skin color identification is repositioned in the French context where the Brazilian paradigm of chromatic racial classification gradually loses its singularity.

KEYWORDS:

• Afro-Brazilians
• skin color
• ethno-racial
• French society

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

†. The notion of race is here employed as a sociological category for the analyses and the interpretation of the imaginary processes of social construction in the multicultural societies. Following Floya Anthias contention, “race categories belong to the more encompassing category of ethnic collectivity, therefore, race is one of the ways in which ethnic boundaries are constructed” (2001, 369).

1. Although skin color classification in Brazil is manifold, I will use in this article mostly the nonwhite category to refer to Brazilians of black/African origin. The categories of black and brown will follow according to the context.

2. The Brazilian black movement acquired a continuous sociopolitical influence due to a series of social activism within Brazilian civil society's movements in the 1980s and the 1990s – under the influence of worldwide activism: feminist movements, civil rights’ movement in North America, ethnic and religious movements, etc.

3. The Brazilian migration to France is perceptible only at the end of the 1960s. During the 1960s and the 1970s many intellectuals, political figures, artists, and students, running from the Brazilian dictatorial government (from 1964 to 1985) have come to live in Europe (England and France mainly). This immigration was joined by other immigrants from other dictatorial countries such as Chile and Argentina.

4. The sample was composed of fifty in-depth interviews with nonwhite Brazilians (27 men and 23 women), from 25 to 60 years old, living, working or studying in Paris. The interviews focused on questions concerning life experiences on migration, and national and racial identity formation. Besides the methods of qualitative research – discourse analyses and participant observation – a combination of some official quantitative data (INSEE, IBGE, Brazilian Embassy, cultural Brazilian associations) has enhanced our sample.

5. According to Carlos Hasenbalg, the

whitening ideology refers to the ideological apparatus formed by the family, school, church and media which propagate values – that together with the myth of racial democracy – provides the base for the alleged superiority of the white “race” and culture over other “races” and cultures. (1982, 54)

6. The widespread ‘eugenic scientific theories’ of Galton and the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer dominated the end of nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. In France, the work of Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau – Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines (1853–1855) – will strongly influence Brazilian élite.

7. In this article, we have employed fictitious names in order to preserve the identity of our interviewees.

8. According to Edith Kovats Beaudoux, « pour un Antillais, son sauvage, son nègre à lui, c'est le Noir d'Afrique, et l'Antillais qui émigre en France est profondément troublé par les discriminations raciales qu'il subit et la méfiance qu'il rencontre au même titre qu'un Africain » (2002, 140).

9. As Horacio (63, singer/businessman, 30 years in France) states: ‘Whenever I am stopped by a French policeman for an identity card control, as soon as I show him my Brazilian passport the initial tension fades away, he smiles and says “Ah! Brésilien”!’. The all-embracing Brazilian national identity can sometimes defuse the initial ethno-racial tension and highlight the identity boundaries between black Brazilians and other black French populations.

10. It is important to mention that in the 2010 Brazilian census, for the first time since the end of the nineteenth century, those who are declaring themselves as black or mixed race (mestiço) are the majority. Brazil has at present the most important African descent population outside Africa.