Title Negotiating national identity : immigrants, minorities, and the struggle for ethnicity in Brazil / Jeffrey Lesser

Published Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1999

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 281 pages) : illustrations Series Book collections on Project MUSE Contents The Hidden Hyphen -- Chinese Labor and the Debate over Ethnic Integration -- Constructing Ethnic Space -- Searching for a Hyphen -- Negotiations and New Identities -- Turning Japanese -- A Suggestive Epilogue Summary Despite great ethnic and racial diversity, ethnicity in Brazil is often portrayed as a matter of black or white, a distinction reinforced by the ruling elite's efforts to craft the nation's identity in its own image--white, Christian, and European. In Negotiating National Identity Jeffrey Lesser explores the crucial role ethnic minorities from China, Japan, North Africa, and the Middle East have played in constructing Brazil's national identity, thereby challenging dominant notions of nationality and citizenship.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. 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 "privilege" 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.Based on extensive research, Negotiating National Identity 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-276) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL Print version record digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Subject Ethnicity -- Brazil Immigrants -- Brazil Minorities -- Brazil National characteristics, Brazilian. Asians -- Brazil -- Ethnic identity Elite (Social sciences) -- Brazil -- Attitudes Brazilians. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies. HISTORY / Latin America / South America Brazilians Asians -- Ethnic identity Elite (Social sciences) -- Attitudes Ethnic relations Ethnicity Immigrants Minorities National characteristics, Brazilian Einwanderer Identität Immigranten. Culturele identiteit. SUBJECT Brazil -- Ethnic relations Subject Brazil Brasilien Außereuropäische Länder Form Electronic book LC no. 98038238 ISBN 9780822399292 0822399296

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