The International and Transnational Politics of Race-making

• In Event: 391 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Rethinking Race and Nation: Transnational and Comparative Approaches

Abstract

This paper argues that international and transnational political actors are profoundly reshaping the politics of race in the Americas. While comparative race scholarship has traditionally worked with stylized contrasts between “race in the United States” and “race in Latin America”, recent shifts in racial politics across the region expose the limitations of relying on such generalized dichotomies to understand or explain racial formations in the region. In the first decades of the 21st century, Latin American states are increasingly turning to race – in the form of race-based public policies, constitutional reforms, international treaties that recognize ethno-racial minorities, the adoption of new classifications, etc, to address (or to appear to address) historic injustices and contemporary inequalities. Theories of racial formation drawn from the United States case direct attention to domestic politics and mobilization to explain dramatic changes in state racial projects in Latin America. A broader comparative perspective that situates the U.S. case as one among others makes clear that the transformation of state racial projects in the Americas can only be fully understood through an international and transnational analytic lens.

Author

• Mara Loveman, University of California-Berkeley