Being in Afro-Brazilian Families By Elizabeth Hordge Freeman

228 Pages·2012·1.46 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Hordge Freeman

Home is Where the Hurt Is: Racial Socialization, Stigma, and Well-
Being in Afro-Brazilian Families

By

Elizabeth Hordge Freeman

Department of Sociology
Duke University

Date: _____________________
Approved:

________________________________________
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Co-Supervisor

_________________________________________
Linda George, Co-Supervisor

_________________________________________
Lynn Smith-Lovin

_________________________________________
Linda Burton

__________________________________________
Sherman James

Dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology
in the Graduate School of Duke University

2012
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ABSTRACT

Home is Where the Hurt Is: Racial Socialization, Stigma, and Well-
Being in Afro-Brazilian Families

By

Elizabeth Hordge Freeman

Department of Sociology
Duke University

Date: _____________________
Approved:

________________________________________
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Co-Supervisor

_________________________________________
Linda George, Co-Supervisor

_________________________________________
Lynn Smith-Lovin

_________________________________________
Linda Burton

__________________________________________
Sherman James

An abstract submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology
in the Graduate School of Duke University

2012

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Copyright by
Elizabeth Hordge Freeman
2012

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Abstract
This dissertation examines racial socialization in Afro-Brazilian families in order to
understand how phenotypically diverse families negotiate racial hierarchies and
ideologies of white supremacy. As an inductive, qualitative project, this research is
based on over fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil in
fifteen poor and working-class Bahian families and 116 semi-structured interviews with
family members and informants. Findings suggest that one of the most prominent
features of racial socialization is the pervasive devaluation of black/African influences,
which is conveyed through implicit and explicit messages as well as concrete practices
(including rituals) that promote the stigmatization of negatively valued racialized
physical features. The study reveals a pattern of unequal distribution of affection based
on racial appearance (phenotype), which is evident in parent-child, sibling, extended
family, and romantic relationships. Findings suggest that negative appraisals of racial
phenotype may significantly compromise affective bonds in families and have social
psychological consequences impacting self-esteem and sense of belonging, while also
eliciting suicidal ideations and anxieties. These outcomes are most pronounced for
Afro-Brazilian females. Racial socialization also conveys the “strategically ambiguous”
logic of color and racial classification, uncritically exposes family members to racist
messages, jokes, and stereotypical images of Afro-Brazilians, and encourages cultural
participation that superficially valorizes Afro-Brazilian culture and fosters nationalism,
rather than racial identity. In contrast to traditional findings of racial socialization in the
U.S., messages valorizing racial heritage are rare and efforts to prepare family members
for bias rely on universal terms. Families do employ counter-discourses and creative
strategies of resistance; and so, racial socialization is characterized by practices that
reflect both resistance and accommodation to racial hierarchies. I conclude that racial
socialization in families is influenced by and sustains racialization processes that
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maintain the broader system of white supremacy. Contrary to how racial socialization
has been framed as having a purely protective role in families, this study illustrates how
it may disadvantage blacks vis-à-vis whites and uniquely stigmatizes the most “black-
looking” family members vis-à-vis those who more closely approximate an idealized
(whiter) somatic norm. Future studies should triangulate data on racial socialization
from other regions of the Americas.
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Dedication
For my son, Nathaniel.
For Essence, Sonia, Lauryn, and Gabrielle.
And for black girls of the African Diaspora: past, present, and future.
A luta contra o racismo e o sexismo é uma luta internacional.

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Contents

Abstract..........................................................................................................................................iv
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................xii
1. Introduction...............................................................................................................................1
1.1 “The Face of A Slave” ........................................................................................................1
1.2 Background..........................................................................................................................2
1.3 Case Selection .....................................................................................................................5
1.3.1 Community Site ..........................................................................................................6
1.4 Data and Methods...............................................................................................................9
1.5 Methodology.....................................................................................................................11
1.6 “Second Sight” or Double Vision? My Subjectivity in the Field................................17
1.7 Organization of the Dissertation....................................................................................24
2. Literature Review ...................................................................................................................27
2.1 Crafting a Social Order: Race and Racialization ..........................................................27
2.1.1 Towards a Phenotypic Continuum.........................................................................28
2.2 Blinded by the White: Whitening and Racial Socialization in Families...................30
2.2.1 Studying Families in the U.S. and Brazil ...............................................................31
2.2.2 Mothering in Families ..............................................................................................33
2.3 The Stigmatized Body and Well Being .........................................................................35
2.4 The Family Systems Paradigm and Emotions .............................................................37
2.5 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................................................39
2.6 Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................40
2.7 The Racial Rubik: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil ...................................................................42
3. “All in the Family”: Implicit and Explicit Racial Socialization ........................................47
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3.1 Chapter Preface ...............................................................................................................47
3.2 “Strategic Ambiguity” and Color Inconsistencies ......................................................49
3.2.1 Family Interventions in Racial Classification .......................................................58
3.2.2 Will the real white person please stand up? .........................................................60
3.2.3 There are no whites, We are all black! ...................................................................63
3.3 Race and Space ................................................................................................................64
3.3.1 Todo no seu Lugar - Everything in its Place ...........................................................66
3.4 “Explicit Socialization Messages? ..................................................................................69
3.4.1 Educação é Salvação: Education is Salvation ..........................................................72
3.4.2 Reading Bodies, Not Books .....................................................................................74
3.5 Racially (Mixed Messages) and Quotas ........................................................................75
3.6 What is racism? ................................................................................................................79
3.7 Media and Culture............................................................................................................80
3.7.1 Novelas........................................................................................................................81
3.7.2 Re-Telling National Tales ........................................................................................84
3.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................90
4. What’s Love Got to Do With It? : The Stigma of Racialized Features, Affect, and
Socialization in Families.............................................................................................................94
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4.1 Context ..............................................................................................................................94
4.2 The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Mother-Child Relationships ...............................95
4.2.1 Harbingers of Racial Socialization: Babies ............................................................96
4.3 Like a Good Neighbor....................................................................................................100
4.4 Mama’s Baby is Daddy’s Maybe..................................................................................104
4.5 Racial Roulette and Sibling Rivalry..............................................................................106
4.6 She’s just my (pheno)Type: Romantic Love ..............................................................108
4.6.1 Race and Romance ..................................................................................................110
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4.7 Discussion ......................................................................................................................113
5. Black and “Blue”: Racial Stigma and Well being............................................................117
5.1 Incog-negro: Abandoning Blackness ..........................................................................117
5.2 When Racial Roulette is Violent ..................................................................................125
5.3 Depression, Trust, and Trauma ...................................................................................127
5.4 Pretty Please?! Beauty and Self-Esteem .....................................................................129
5.5 We (Don’t) Belong Together .........................................................................................132
5.6 Discussion........................................................................................................................134
6. Pigments of the Imagination: Beauty, Body, and Racialization ...................................139
6.1 The Bodies Exhibit .........................................................................................................139
6.2 Hands, Feet, and Ears, Oh My! ....................................................................................141
6.3 Hair-itage ........................................................................................................................144
6.3.1 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly .........................................................................148
6.4 The Roots of Resistance: Afro-Aesthetics ...................................................................149
6.4.1 Hide My Roots! Afro-Aesthetics and Cultural Movements at Home ............153
6.5 Discussion........................................................................................................................157
7. “Where There is Power, There is Also Resistance” .........................................................159
7.1 Nascimento Family Values ...........................................................................................159
7.1.1 Racial Names ...........................................................................................................161
7.1.2 Race and Privilege ..................................................................................................163
7.1.3 Beauty .......................................................................................................................165
7.1.4 Racial History ..........................................................................................................167
7.1.5 Internalized Racism ................................................................................................169
7.2 The Santos Family ..........................................................................................................171
7.2.1 Racial Rituals ...........................................................................................................173
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7.3 The de Jesus Family: The Brazilian Black Panthers...................................................175
7.3.1 Brief Life History of Pantera Negra .......................................................................176
7.3.2 Explicit Socialization ..............................................................................................179
7.4 Discussion........................................................................................................................180
8. Conclusion - The Ties That Bind ......................................................................................184
8.1 Limitations and Future Directions ..............................................................................187
8.2 Conclusions .....................................................................................................................190
Appendix A ..............................................................................................................................194
Appendix B ..............................................................................................................................196
Appendix C................................................................................................................................197
Appendix D ..............................................................................................................................198
Appendix E ..............................................................................................................................199
References .................................................................................................................................200
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................213

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