Affirming Blackness in 'Post-Racial' Contexts: On Race, Colorism, and Hybrid Identities in Brazil

Abstract

Safran's theorization of diaspora focused on a 'myth of return', a conscious desire to return from banishment to a homeland or an identity. This paper extends Safran's conceptualization of identity formation to highlight how four Afro-Brazilian community health workers (CHW) talk, imagine, celebrate, and reaffirm their African identity. The paper argues that by affirming blackness, CHW tell us something about the context of racialization and identity politics in Brazil. Relegated to the bottom of the stratification system and dominated by Euro-hegemonic structures, CHW negotiate their identities, leading to different forms of resistance. The paper shares their narratives of recovering an Afro-centric personhood that affirms their history, humanity, and lived experiences. This affirmation becomes a state of being and a process of becoming, a kind of voyage that encompasses the possibility of never leaving; a navigation of multiple belongings and networks of affiliation, particularly in modern contexts of post-racial theorizing.