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Neither Black Nor White: Slavery and Race Relations in Brazil and the United States
Carl Degler’s 1971 Pulitzer-Prize-winning study of comparative slavery in Brazil and the United States is reissued in the Wisconsin paperback edition, making it accessible for all students of American and Latin American history and sociology.
Until Degler’s groundbreaking work, scholars were puzzled by the differing courses of slavery and race relations in the two countries. Brazil never developed a system of rigid segregation, such as appeared in the United States, and blacks in Brazil were able to gain economically and retain far more of their African culture. Rejecting the theory of Giberto Freyre and Frank Tannenbaum—that Brazilian slavery was more humane—Degler instead points to a combination of demographic, economic, and cultural factors as the real reason for the differences.
“In the early 1970s when studies in social history were beginning to blossom on the North American scene, Carl Degler’s prize-winning contribution was a thoughtful provocative essay in comparative history. Its thoughtfulness has not diminished with the years. Indeed, it is as topical today as when it was first published. The Brazilian experience with rapid industrialization and its attempt to restore democratic government indicates that the issues which Degler treated in the early 1970s are more pertinent than ever today.”—Franklin W. Knight, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University.
Until Degler’s groundbreaking work, scholars were puzzled by the differing courses of slavery and race relations in the two countries. Brazil never developed a system of rigid segregation, such as appeared in the United States, and blacks in Brazil were able to gain economically and retain far more of their African culture. Rejecting the theory of Giberto Freyre and Frank Tannenbaum—that Brazilian slavery was more humane—Degler instead points to a combination of demographic, economic, and cultural factors as the real reason for the differences.
“In the early 1970s when studies in social history were beginning to blossom on the North American scene, Carl Degler’s prize-winning contribution was a thoughtful provocative essay in comparative history. Its thoughtfulness has not diminished with the years. Indeed, it is as topical today as when it was first published. The Brazilian experience with rapid industrialization and its attempt to restore democratic government indicates that the issues which Degler treated in the early 1970s are more pertinent than ever today.”—Franklin W. Knight, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University.
302 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1971
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 1, 2014
Sometimes, to see a thing clearly, it’s helpful to examine other things that are like it. “Neither Black nor White”, Carl Degler’s Pulitzer Prize winning comparison of the racial histories and (then) current state of race relations in the United States and Brazil, is just such an exercise.
Finding other writers' attempts to compare the U.S. brand of race with the racial attitudes broadly held in "South America" to be too imprecise, Degler instead attempted a country to country, point by point comparison between the United States and, specifically, Brazil; two countries whose histories share a remarkable number of similarities, and yet, whose superficial cultural view of race was, in 1968 when Degler published his book, remarkably dissimilar. Unlike in the United States, which had just emerged from over three centuries of statutory racial oppression into an era of new-found concern for civil rights, Brazil of the late 1960’s appeared to be an oasis of racial calm. Proud of the “racial democracy” that had emerged since slavery emancipation in 188_, Brazilians as a whole were fond of believing that the type of vile and violent racism that was so common in America simply didn’t exist in their country. “Neither Black Nor White” attempts to discover whether this racial placidity was indeed real, and if so, how such a harmonious state of affairs was achieved.
By comparing the historical evolution of each country, taking into account differences in national outlooks on political organization, patriarchy and deference to central authority, as well as divergent geographic, economic and religious factors, Degler contrasted the two with respect to the resulting evolution of attitudes on race. While superficially Brazil may have seemed to be a racial paradise relative to the United States, Degler argued that beneath the surface a comparable ethos of debilitating racial bias was operable in both countries. Degler accounted for the absence of strident militancy on the part of Brazilian blacks and overt and violent hostility on the part of Brazilian whites by the Brazilian custom of viewing mulattos as essentially an intermediate third race that, while not strictly enjoying all of the privileges of being white, nonetheless benefited from far higher degrees of social acceptance and mobility than purely black citizens. Why and how this mulatto “escape hatch” came into being is a fascinating component of Degler’s story, but the result of it has been to encourage a Brazilian obsession over gradations of color that quieted the impetus for obnoxious manifestations of racial bias that were common in the U.S. of the late 1960's. Under this cultural paradigm, the sting of racial oppression in Bazile was dulled by the existence of realistically achievable social pathways that forestalled the sense of hopelessness that afflicted American blacks. In other words, Degler concluded that negative racial biases towards color were alive, well and thoroughly operative in Brazil; yet the opportunity to “whiten” (intermarry with a light skinned partner to produce lighter skinned offspring) provided a realistic, albeit perverse, hope to blacks for achieving elevated levels of relative cultural status and correspondingly higher chances for social mobility in a way that was not inherently threatening to the dominant white culture.
Understanding the complex interplay between shades of color and social status as it existed in Brazil at the end of the 1960’s leads to fascinating and useful insights about the contemporaneous racial dynamics of the United States. Historically, in the United States the rules were always simple – a white, regardless of his class, was always superior to a black. In Brazil, however, while poor whites still “outranked” blacks in some nominal sense, mulattos nonetheless could and frequently did achieve levels of social status unattainable by poorer whites. As a consequence, Brazilian whites were far more sanguine about black advancement than were (and are) their American counterparts. The Brazilian paradigm highlights the fact that because the advancement of blacks in the United States necessarily implied diminished white social status this threat to white status accounted for the depth of oppressive intransigence that successive generations of American whites have shown towards blacks throughout the course of American history. This, Degler’s insights might suggest, implies that they key to unraveling the mystery of North American racial oppression lies neither with the white elites who routinely profited financially from black subjugation nor with racism’s black victims who suffered as a result, but instead with the median white whose status interests were enhanced by regimes of black oppression and, conversely, were diminished by successful advances towards racial equality.
As mentioned above, Degler’s book was published at the end of the 1960’s and so, reflects racial realities that were prevalent in both Brazil and the United States at that time. While this sometimes make Degler’s discussion seem dated and out of touch with contemporary American (and, perhaps, Brazilian) experience, this concern is only superficially true. Degler’s real contribution lay in helping to define the axis around which the wheel of racism turns – that the wheel’s position in Brazil in 1968 may look in certain respects more like the wheel’s position in America in 2014 does not alter the rigid polarity of the axis over the intervening decades. The American and Brazilian experience makes clear that racism is, and always has been, about the establishment and perpetuations of status interests. While, as was the case in the U.S. laws may be passed to ameliorate the cruelest manifestations of racial oppression or, as in Brazil where social norms may be established whereby social mobility becomes attainable within a fundamentally racist construct, Degler’s work suggests that unless and until the core issue of status (particularly, white status) is recognized and addressed, the wheel of racism, with all of its attendant misery and suffering, will continue to turn and turn and turn.
Dated though it at times seemed, this was a phenomenal book whose core insights contributed significantly to my understanding of America’s racial past and helped to set expectations for America’s racial future.
Finding other writers' attempts to compare the U.S. brand of race with the racial attitudes broadly held in "South America" to be too imprecise, Degler instead attempted a country to country, point by point comparison between the United States and, specifically, Brazil; two countries whose histories share a remarkable number of similarities, and yet, whose superficial cultural view of race was, in 1968 when Degler published his book, remarkably dissimilar. Unlike in the United States, which had just emerged from over three centuries of statutory racial oppression into an era of new-found concern for civil rights, Brazil of the late 1960’s appeared to be an oasis of racial calm. Proud of the “racial democracy” that had emerged since slavery emancipation in 188_, Brazilians as a whole were fond of believing that the type of vile and violent racism that was so common in America simply didn’t exist in their country. “Neither Black Nor White” attempts to discover whether this racial placidity was indeed real, and if so, how such a harmonious state of affairs was achieved.
By comparing the historical evolution of each country, taking into account differences in national outlooks on political organization, patriarchy and deference to central authority, as well as divergent geographic, economic and religious factors, Degler contrasted the two with respect to the resulting evolution of attitudes on race. While superficially Brazil may have seemed to be a racial paradise relative to the United States, Degler argued that beneath the surface a comparable ethos of debilitating racial bias was operable in both countries. Degler accounted for the absence of strident militancy on the part of Brazilian blacks and overt and violent hostility on the part of Brazilian whites by the Brazilian custom of viewing mulattos as essentially an intermediate third race that, while not strictly enjoying all of the privileges of being white, nonetheless benefited from far higher degrees of social acceptance and mobility than purely black citizens. Why and how this mulatto “escape hatch” came into being is a fascinating component of Degler’s story, but the result of it has been to encourage a Brazilian obsession over gradations of color that quieted the impetus for obnoxious manifestations of racial bias that were common in the U.S. of the late 1960's. Under this cultural paradigm, the sting of racial oppression in Bazile was dulled by the existence of realistically achievable social pathways that forestalled the sense of hopelessness that afflicted American blacks. In other words, Degler concluded that negative racial biases towards color were alive, well and thoroughly operative in Brazil; yet the opportunity to “whiten” (intermarry with a light skinned partner to produce lighter skinned offspring) provided a realistic, albeit perverse, hope to blacks for achieving elevated levels of relative cultural status and correspondingly higher chances for social mobility in a way that was not inherently threatening to the dominant white culture.
Understanding the complex interplay between shades of color and social status as it existed in Brazil at the end of the 1960’s leads to fascinating and useful insights about the contemporaneous racial dynamics of the United States. Historically, in the United States the rules were always simple – a white, regardless of his class, was always superior to a black. In Brazil, however, while poor whites still “outranked” blacks in some nominal sense, mulattos nonetheless could and frequently did achieve levels of social status unattainable by poorer whites. As a consequence, Brazilian whites were far more sanguine about black advancement than were (and are) their American counterparts. The Brazilian paradigm highlights the fact that because the advancement of blacks in the United States necessarily implied diminished white social status this threat to white status accounted for the depth of oppressive intransigence that successive generations of American whites have shown towards blacks throughout the course of American history. This, Degler’s insights might suggest, implies that they key to unraveling the mystery of North American racial oppression lies neither with the white elites who routinely profited financially from black subjugation nor with racism’s black victims who suffered as a result, but instead with the median white whose status interests were enhanced by regimes of black oppression and, conversely, were diminished by successful advances towards racial equality.
As mentioned above, Degler’s book was published at the end of the 1960’s and so, reflects racial realities that were prevalent in both Brazil and the United States at that time. While this sometimes make Degler’s discussion seem dated and out of touch with contemporary American (and, perhaps, Brazilian) experience, this concern is only superficially true. Degler’s real contribution lay in helping to define the axis around which the wheel of racism turns – that the wheel’s position in Brazil in 1968 may look in certain respects more like the wheel’s position in America in 2014 does not alter the rigid polarity of the axis over the intervening decades. The American and Brazilian experience makes clear that racism is, and always has been, about the establishment and perpetuations of status interests. While, as was the case in the U.S. laws may be passed to ameliorate the cruelest manifestations of racial oppression or, as in Brazil where social norms may be established whereby social mobility becomes attainable within a fundamentally racist construct, Degler’s work suggests that unless and until the core issue of status (particularly, white status) is recognized and addressed, the wheel of racism, with all of its attendant misery and suffering, will continue to turn and turn and turn.
Dated though it at times seemed, this was a phenomenal book whose core insights contributed significantly to my understanding of America’s racial past and helped to set expectations for America’s racial future.
March 31, 2021
Entry #9 in #LarryReadsTheBancroftWinners. Degler won the award in 1972. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1971. (Interestingly, Degler was one of only two male co-founders of the National Organization for Women.)
This book is a classic, and deservedly so. I read it in college in the early 80s for a comparative race relations class, and it still stands up. To my mind, though, it's more a work of sociology than of history, and to a great extent its research is more into Brazilian than American sources. That said, NBNW is an example of clearly posing, investigating, and answering a basic question: to what extent can we say that the apparently more racially tolerant society of Brazil derives from the differences in its history of slavery when compared to America? Does, in other words, history explain the present, with respect to race relations?
Short answer: kind of. In his investigation Degler finds that (a) the notion that Brazil is more racially tolerant than America is true but overstated, and (b) the differences in slavery in the two countries isn't as important in explaining the two countries' contemporary racial systems as other factors, like geography, religion, and post-emancipation economic developments.
A deserved winner, to be sure.
This book is a classic, and deservedly so. I read it in college in the early 80s for a comparative race relations class, and it still stands up. To my mind, though, it's more a work of sociology than of history, and to a great extent its research is more into Brazilian than American sources. That said, NBNW is an example of clearly posing, investigating, and answering a basic question: to what extent can we say that the apparently more racially tolerant society of Brazil derives from the differences in its history of slavery when compared to America? Does, in other words, history explain the present, with respect to race relations?
Short answer: kind of. In his investigation Degler finds that (a) the notion that Brazil is more racially tolerant than America is true but overstated, and (b) the differences in slavery in the two countries isn't as important in explaining the two countries' contemporary racial systems as other factors, like geography, religion, and post-emancipation economic developments.
A deserved winner, to be sure.
September 12, 2020
Great read. Highly recommended for anyone new to the history of slavery in either regions. The book touches on social relations between blacks and whites, as well as how the origin and idea of race was created and eventually practiced in each society. The social and legal framework helps understand the key differences and similarities of race relations in the 21st century.
October 19, 2024
Maybe 3.5 stars. No matter what promise race relations exhibited in the early 1970s, Degler pretty much prophesies that racial prejudice would not be erased by laws and social trends. The author's last line still stands: "We have to recognize that the price of equality in pluralism, like the price of liberty, is eternal vigilance."
April 14, 2011
Read it for class at UCLA. Good class, ok book.
November 29, 2008
i read parts of this book as part of my study abroad trip to brazil. it has a fascinating analysis about slavery in the americas.
January 22, 2013
A great comparison of slavery and racism between the US and Brazil, but it is somewhat dated by now (It's from 1971).
March 24, 2018
It was dated by the time I read it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews