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The articles in this second Brazil issue of the year address racial discrimination and the social dynamics of inequality, two of the nation’s most pressing and persistent problems. Though in recent years Brazilians have rejected earlier utopian notions of a supposed “racial democracy,” and have acknowledged that racism (and not merely class division) in Brazil is a problem, most continue to describe themselves as non-racist, despite the obvious reality that racial distinctions continue, with the nation’s non-white population disproportionately affected by higher levels of violence, unemployment, illiteracy, deficient health care and housing and lack of access to social services.

The articles assembled in this issue confront the common stereotypes and assumptions regarding racial relations in Brazil and also expand the discussion beyond the biology/class analysis to demonstrate the connections between race, class, gender, culture, and identity and the contradictions involved in trying to resolve the problem of racism simply as a single issue. Articles assembled here not only deal with the perpetuation of stereotypes that confirm and naturalize discriminatory assumptions, but also raise provocative questions such as: who is black in Brazil? (as well as this question’s logical counterpart – who is white? – and how, and who, determines this); what are the most effective ways of exposing and combating inherently racist and discriminatory public policies?; how has academia itself been complicit in enforcing the rhetoric of Brazil’s “racial democracy”?; how has recent cultural production, and especially literature, addressed the problem of identity formation and inequality; and lastly, how have racism and class discrimination shaped the need for Brazil’s first working-class president to recreate his image from labor activist to one depicting “successful” “middle-class” refinement?

Of course, like the subjects of race and class themselves, all of these questions are intertwined and cannot be resolved in isolation. The articles in this special issue of Latin American Perspectives do, however, provide a fascinating discussion of the many dimensions of the problem, and invite readers to consider and debate solutions.

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