Overview

In Breaking the Boundaries of the Colombian Socio-Racial Order: Black Middle Classes through an Intersectional Lens, anthropologist and Black feminist Mara Viveros-Vigoya examines what it means to be Black and middle class in Colombia and how that meaning has been configured over almost a century of the country’s history. By applying an intersectional perspective, the book introduces two important theoretical shifts. First, it challenges the perception of Afro-descendant 'communities' as uniformly impoverished and second, it emphasizes the interconnectedness of class with geographical and historical contexts and with axes of social inequality such as gender, race, and age. Viveros-Vigoya emphasizes the role of Black women in their shaping of the Black middle classes and their values, in ways which at times counter the individualist and capitalist paradigms in which the idea of social mobility is deeply embedded. She also argues that since the inauguration of neoliberal multiculturalism in the 1990s, while Blackness and upward social mobility have become more compatible, it remains to be seen whether we are advancing towards a global agenda of social justice or if we are simply opening some spaces for social and political mobility that serve largely to reproduce the status quo in the name of racial equality.

Full Product Details

9781666919189

Table of Contents

Reviews

In Latin America, the congruence of racial and class hierarchies, structurally and symbolically, is a key factor that facilitates the operations of racism, while also making them easy to misrecognize. Mara Viveros-Vigoya's ground-breaking book, inspired by personal experience, matured through decades of intensive ethnographic and bibliographic research, and fired by anti-racist and feminist ethics, lays bare the complex and intersectional contradictions of this situation for the Black men and women in Colombia who, following paths opened by previous generations, have broken out of the low-status pigeonhole to which Blackness is assumed to belong. Viveros-Vigoya's powerful intersectional approach analyzes in illuminating detail the diverse trajectories and identifications of these people, highlighting the key roles played by Black women. Her book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in racial formations in Colombia and right across Latin America. --Peter Wade, University of Manchester Using sociological, historical, political, and intersectional approaches, Viveros-Vigoya shows that the supposed impossibility of being Black, but not poor, in Colombia is belied by the very existence of the people whose stories she shares.Breaking the Boundaries of the Colombian Socio-Racial Order: Black Middle Classes through an Intersectional Lens is theoretically sophisticated and empirically revealing and will be a defining reference in the global study of stratification, racialization, and political citizenship. --Mary Pattillo, Northwestern University and author of Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class

In Latin America, the congruence of racial and class hierarchies, structurally and symbolically, is a key factor that facilitates the operations of racism, while also making them easy to misrecognize. Mara Viveros-Vigoya's ground-breaking book, inspired by personal experience, matured through decades of intensive ethnographic and bibliographic research, and fired by anti-racist and feminist ethics, lays bare the complex and intersectional contradictions of this situation for the Black men and women in Colombia who, following paths opened by previous generations, have broken out of the low-status pigeonhole to which Blackness is assumed to belong. Viveros-Vigoya's powerful intersectional approach analyzes in illuminating detail the diverse trajectories and identifications of these people, highlighting the key roles played by Black women. Her book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in racial formations in Colombia and right across Latin America.--Peter Wade, University of Manchester

In Latin America, the congruence of racial and class hierarchies, structurally and symbolically, is a key factor that facilitates the operations of racism, while also making them easy to misrecognize. Mara Viveros-Vigoya's ground-breaking book, inspired by personal experience, matured through decades of intensive ethnographic and bibliographic research, and fired by anti-racist and feminist ethics, lays bare the complex and intersectional contradictions of this situation for the Black men and women in Colombia who, following paths opened by previous generations, have broken out of the low-status pigeonhole to which Blackness is assumed to belong. Viveros-Vigoya's powerful intersectional approach analyzes in illuminating detail the diverse trajectories and identifications of these people, highlighting the key roles played by Black women. Her book is essential reading for scholars and students interested in racial formations in Colombia and right across Latin America. Using sociological, historical, political, and intersectional approaches, Viveros-Vigoya shows that the supposed impossibility of being Black, but not poor, in Colombia is belied by the very existence of the people whose stories she shares.Breaking the Boundaries of the Colombian Socio-Racial Order: Black Middle Classes through an Intersectional Lens is theoretically sophisticated and empirically revealing and will be a defining reference in the global study of stratification, racialization, and political citizenship.

Author Information

Mara Viveros Vigoya is professor at the National University of Colombia.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available