Race and a new way of analyzing our national community’s imaginary: From Freyre’s miscegenation to Fanon’s dualism

Abstract

The present article seeks to analyze how the national Brazilian identity has become a battlefield around the racial issue. It proposes to investigate two ways of conceiving Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined community regarding the racial matter: Gilberto Freyre’s miscegenation and Frantz Fanon’s black and white dualism. Having the analysis of Casa grande e senzala (The masters and the slaves) and Pele negra máscaras brancas (Black skin, white masks) as my departure point, I show how the Black Movement has been contesting the racial democracy perspective and demanding an identitarian politics that takes into consideration the hierarchy between white and black people.