{"id":47778,"date":"2016-06-18T23:21:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T23:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47778"},"modified":"2016-06-19T17:55:03","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T17:55:03","slug":"negotiating-national-identity-immigrants-minorities-and-the-struggle-for-ethnicity-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47778","title":{"rendered":"Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Duke University Press<\/a>
\n1999
\n304 pages
\n11 b&w photographs, 4 tables
\nCloth ISBN: 978-0-8223-2260-3
\nPaperback ISBN: 978-0-8223-2292-4<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Lesser<\/strong><\/a>, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History
\nEmory University, Atlanta, Georgia<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Winner, Brazil in Comparative Perspective section of Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Best Book Award<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite great ethnic and racial diversity, ethnicity in Brazil<\/a> is often portrayed as a matter of black or white, a distinction reinforced by the ruling elite\u2019s efforts to craft the nation\u2019s identity in its own image\u2014white, Christian, and European. In Negotiating National Identity<\/em> Jeffrey Lesser explores the crucial role ethnic minorities from China<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, North Africa<\/a>, and the Middle East<\/a> have played in constructing Brazil\u2019s national identity, thereby challenging dominant notions of nationality and citizenship.<\/p>\n

Employing a cross-cultural approach, Lesser examines a variety of acculturating responses by minority groups, from insisting on their own whiteness to becoming ultra-nationalists and even entering secret societies that insisted Japan had won World War II<\/a>. He discusses how various minority groups engaged in similar, and successful, strategies of integration even as they faced immense discrimination and prejudice. Some believed that their ethnic heritage was too high a price to pay for the \u201cprivilege\u201d of being white and created alternative categories for themselves, such as Syrian-Lebanese, Japanese-Brazilian, and so on. By giving voice to the role ethnic minorities have played in weaving a broader definition of national identity, this book challenges the notion that elite discourse is hegemonic and provides the first comprehensive look at Brazilian worlds often ignored by scholars.<\/p>\n

Based on extensive research, Negotiating National Identity<\/em> will be valuable to scholars and students in Brazilian and Latin American studies, as well as those in the fields of immigrant history, ethnic studies, and race relations.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n