Abstract

CUNHA, Renata Rocha Tsuji da  and  SANTOS, Alessandro de Oliveira dos. The production of Dante Moreira Leite (1927-1976) in the understanding of ethnic-racial relations in Brazil. Rev. Psicol. UNESP [online]. 2015, vol.14, n.1, pp. 43-55. ISSN 1984-9044.

This paper analyses how the categories race, people, racial prejudice and racism are understood and articulated in Dante Moreira Leite the theoretical productions (1927-1976), seeking to give visibility to the thought of this social psychologist on ethnic-racial relations in Brazil. Since his first productions, the author demonstrates his opposition to prejudice, intolerance, and domination. He also criticizes the positivist and ethnocentric paradigms of Brazilian ideologues until mid-twentieth century, breaking with the view that Brazil is a country marked by cordiality and harmony between racial groups. It was very helpful to confront the invisibility of racism and racial prejudice by Brazilian social psychology. However, as an author of early twenty century, Dante still mobilizes and affirms the category race, not in its social sense (used today as a device to build and maintain privileges), but in its biological sense, as an explanation and justification for inequalities and differences.

Keywords : Dante Moreira Leite; social psychology; ethnic-racial relations; racism; Brazilian national character.

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