To Be Brown in Brazil: Education and Segregation Latin American Style
![handle is hein.journals/nyuls29 and id is 693 raw text is: TO BE BROWN IN BRAZIL: EDUCATION AND
SEGREGATION LATIN AMERICAN STYLE
TANYA KATERi HERNANDEZ*
As a scholar who studies civil rights movements from a comparative
perspective, the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v.
Board of Education1 decision causes me to query the power of Brown as a
symbol of equality outside of the United States. Because there is a larger
community of African descendants living in Latin America and the Caribbean
than there is in the United States, examining the role of Brown in Latin America
and the Caribbean is particularly worthwhile. Furthermore, focusing on the
Latin American and Caribbean contexts is also relevant due to the significant
influence of the U.S. civil rights movement in inspiring Latin American social
justice movements.
Yet, what immediately becomes apparent in examining the Latin American
social movements' literature is the general absence of any mention of the Brown
decision. This absence is particularly remarkable given the growing amount of
data that such movements are disseminating about problems surrounding poorly
funded segregated schools in the region. In order to be more concrete about this
rhetorical phenomenon, I have chosen Brazil as a case example. I shall focus on
Brazil because of its longstanding Black2 social justice movement, the rich body
of literature describing this movement, and the country's recent experience with
affirmative action in higher education. I put forth the theory that while the U.S.
civil rights movement has been a great inspiration to Afro-Brazilian activists and
* Professor of Law & Justice Frederick Hall Scholar, Rutgers University Law School-Newark
(THemandez@kinoy.rutgers.edu). It is with much appreciation that I extend thanks to the
following people who read and commented on an earlier draft of this article: Luiz Barcelos, Ariel
Dulitzky, Anani Dzidzienyo, Lia Epperson, Ollie Johnson, Denise Morgan, and Seth Racusen. I
also benefited from presenting the paper before the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the
Modem Experience Spring 2004 Faculty Colloquim. Funding for this research project was
provided by the Dean's Research Fund of Rutgers School of Law-Newark during my time as an
Independent Scholar in Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in the
fall of 2003. But most importantly I must thank the Global Rights-Partners for Justice, Latin
America Program for showing me African Diaspora racial justice coalitions in action, and thereby
inspiring this project. Muito obrigado!
1. Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954).
2. In this article, I have capitalized the words Black and White when they refer to persons
whose race is Black or White to denote the political meaning of race, or to represent the social
significance of being White or Black as something more than just skin color. Accord Victor F.
Caldwell, Book Note, 96 COLUM. L. REV. 1363, 1369 (1996) (reviewing CRITICAL RACE THEORY:
THE KEY WRITINGS THAT FORMED THE MOVEMENT (Kimberl6 Williams Crenshaw et al. eds.,
1995)) (contrasting the Critical Race Theory historical view of race, which acknowledges past and
continuing racial subordination, with the formal view of race, which treats race as a neutral,
apolitical description[], reflecting merely 'skin color' or region of ancestral origin).
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To Be Brown in Brazil: Education and Segregation Latin American Style
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