African-American Reflections on Brazil's Racial Paradise

At the turn of the twentieth century, the popular image of Brazil was that of a tropical utopia for people of color. As the country with the second largest population of people of African descent in the world, Brazil was looked upon as a model and a beacon of hope by African Americans. Reports of this racial paradise were affirmed by notable black observers until the middle of this century, when the myth began to be challenged by North American blacks whose attitudes were influenced by the civil rights movement and burgeoning black militancy. The debate continued and the myth of the racial paradise was eventually rejected as African Americans began to see the contradictions of Brazilian society as well as the dangers for people of color.
In this book, David Hellwig has assembled numerous observations of race relations in Brazil from the first decade of the century through the 1980s. The selected commentaries are written by a wide range of African-American scholars, journalists, and educators, including W.E.B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier. They provide unique insights into black American social thought and contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between Latin Americans and African Americans. Originally written for newspapers and magazines, the pieces are addressed to a general audience. While these documents portray social negotiations in another "melting pot" nation, they also reveal the inner struggles of African Americans attempting to understand their own experience within the context of race in the Americas.