Beyond Racism: Race and Inequality in Brazil, South Africa, and the United States

Beyond Racism: Race and Inequality in Brazil, South Africa, and the United States, edited by Charles Hamilton, Lynn Huntley, Neville Alexander, Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimaraes, and Wilmot James. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. 627 pages. $65.00 cloth. ISBN: 1-58826-026-7. $23.50 paper. ISBN: 1-58826-002-X.

Theoretical discussions of race increasingly locate race in a comparative perspective: While most empirical studies still locate race within a single national context, it has become clear that racial ideologies are shaped within global dynamics, and scholars of race increasingly recognize that comparative insights strengthen discussions of national processes. With some notable exceptions, however, comparative studies of race are subject to the same constraints facing blind men examining an elephant: Scholars have either been forced to compare racial dynamics at a very abstract level, or they focus in on a single aspect of race, narrowing the comparison to a single dimension such as state policy.

The editors of this volume have tried a different approach, bringing together some of the best scholars (and some activists) to write essays about three key cases. Brazil, South Africa, and the United States all feature prominently in comparative discussions of race, but most comparative scholars offer a rather thin version of each case, both...