The racial category in Social Sciences: Revisiting some political, social and cultural processes in the Brazilian history

Abstract

In the context of the dialogue about the emergence of racial category in Brazil and Cape Verde, in the sequence of the arguments presented by José Carlos dos Anjos, the article emphasizes the most important mechanisms which have delayed this emergence in Brazil. Departing from a reference to three mechanisms, such as the “ritual” of the forgetting tree, the imposture of a new official religion and the disaggregation of blood kinship and ethnic identities, the article emphasizes, as central argument, that the usage of racist theory, as justification, and the effort of the Brazilian State in the way of whiteness´s policy, which is a characteristic of Brazilian history, were strongly determinant. The authors demonstrate also the importance of the emergence of racial category in the Brazilian actual context and the pertinence of afro-descendants concept.

Key words: Afro-descendants, racism in Brazil, whiteness’ policy.