Beauty is constantly lived and incorporated as a meaningful social category in Brazil and intersects with racialised and gendered ways of belonging to the Brazilian nation. Article shows how middle-class women self-identifying as black embody and experience beauty and how, through practices and discourses centered on physical appearance, they both reinforce and challenge broader social and racial inequalities in Brazil.
The sexualisation of racially subordinated people has been linked to the exercise of power. This article focuses on an aspect of subordination related to the condition of being a servant, and the ‘domestication’ and ‘acculturation’ that domestic service implies in societies where black and indigenous people are often linked to ‘backwardness’. Perceived racial otherness, class subordination, gender, age and domesticated servitude together reinforce an erotic image of sexual availability, particularly in younger women.
Seeks to quantify how socioeconomic, health care, demographic, and geographic effects explain racial disparities in low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth (PTB) rates in Brazil. Methods. Focused on disparities in LBW and PTB prevalence between infants of African ancestry alone or African mixed with other ancestries, and European ancestry alone. Differences in prenatal care use and geographic location were the most important contributors, followed by socioeconomic differences. The model explained the majority of the disparities for mixed African ancestry and part of the disparity for African ancestry alone.
Investigates the interface between gender, color/race and public health in Brazil, focusing on the importance of reproductive health for the formation of a black feminism in the country, between the years 1975 to 1993.
Reports on data drawn from a study exploring the educational strategies of 62 Black Caribbean heritage middle-class parents. Considers the roles of race and class in the shaping of parents' educational strategies.
Argues that the task for the researcher is attempting to understand how race and class differently interact in particular contexts. Concludes that a focus on Black Caribbean heritage families can further develop the concept of concerted cultivation, and demonstrate the complex ways in which, for these families, such a strategy is a tool of social reproduction but also functions as attempted protection against racism in White mainstream society.
Using Black women's responses to same-race sexual assault, demonstrates how scholars can use interpersonal violence to understand social processes and develop conceptual models. African and Caribbean immigrants often avoid the language of social structure in their rape accounts and use cultural references to distance themselves from African Americans.
Investigates the associations between reproductive and menstrual risk factors for breast cancer and mammographic density, a strong risk factor for breast cancer, in a predominantly ethnic minority and immigrant sample. Interviewed women (42% African American, 22% African Caribbean, 22% White, 9% Hispanic Caribbean, 5% other) without a history of breast cancer during their mammography appointment (n = 191, mean age = 50). Concludes that the mean level of mammographic density did not differ across ethnic and nativity groups, but several risk factors for breast cancer were associated with density in ethnic minority and immigrant women.
Draws on qualitative data exploring the experiences of first-generation middle-class Black Caribbean-heritage parents, their own parents, and their children. Focuses on the different ways in which race and class intersect in shaping attitudes towards education and subsequent educational practices.
