{"product_id":"afroparadise-9780252081446","title":"AfroParadise","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTourists exult in Bahia, Brazil, as a tropical paradise infused with the black population''s one-of-a-kind vitality. But the alluring images of smiling black faces and dancing black bodies masks an ugly reality of anti-black authoritarian violence. \u003cp\u003e Christen A. Smith argues that the dialectic of glorified representations of black bodies and subsequent state repression reinforces Brazil''s racially hierarchal society. Interpreting the violence as both institutional and performative, Smith follows a grassroots movement and social protest theater troupe in their campaigns against racial violence. As Smith reveals, economies of black pain and suffering form the backdrop for the staged, scripted, and choreographed afro-paradise that dazzles visitors. The work of grassroots organizers exposes this relationship, exploding illusions and asking unwelcome questions about the impact of state violence performed against the still-marginalized mass of Afro-Brazilians. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Based on years of fi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHonorable mention, Errol Hill Award, American Society for Theatre Research, 2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"An impressive ethnography of racialized state violence in Brazil and the quotidian gestures to survive or counter its enduring push against black life. The writing is urgent, engaging, and exemplary in its focus and clarity.”--\u003ci\u003eThe American Society for Theatre Research\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAfro-Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e offers a much needed contribution to the field of black studies in the Americas. . . . Additionally, it expands the recent discussions unearthed by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, by addressing the unique context of race relations in Brazil.\"--\u003ci\u003eLuso-Brazilian Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"This book is an excellent one that should be of great use in a number of seminars, particularly to those that consider the predominance of violence in the genealogy of African diaspora communities, and in the contemporary lives of their members, in Brazil and elsewhere. It is an excellent demonstration of the importance of performance studies for socio-cultural anthropology.\"--\u003ci\u003eJournal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"This book powerfully demonstrates that Bahia's exotic allure is in fact no afro-paradise. In a unique fusion of ethnography and textual analysis, the author reveals how in the 'land of happiness,' anti-black violence is pervasive and deadly. As the question of anti-black violence continues to emerge as the key political issue of our generation, \u003ci\u003eAfro-Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e brings a much needed global perspective to our discussions of anti-blackness and black survival.\"--Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, author of \u003ci\u003eBlack Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A compelling look at anti-black violence in contemporary Brazil. From the pelourinho to the forms of policing that followed emancipation, through to the military dictatorship and post-1989 processes of gentrification, Smith demonstrates in specific ways how violence against black bodies is foundational to the state. An exciting contribution to a number of fields.\"--Deborah A. Thomas, author of \u003ci\u003eExceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This provocative ethnography is extremely timely. The current upsurge of antiracist activism on U.S. and Brazilian streets and also the availability of a rich repertoire of theoretical, and methodological, and ethical tools that anthropologists like Christen Smith strategically engage have set the stage for this compelling social analysis, which is situated where scholarship and activism intersect. In a remarkably sophisticated and creative way, the author brings street theater, carnival, state violence and social movements into a trenchant conversation on race, gender, class and the paradoxes of citizenship, as Black Brazilians embody and perform them in Salvador, Bahia. In this book Smith performs a powerful act of counter-storytelling at its best.\"--Faye V. Harrison, author of \u003ci\u003eOutsider Within: Reworking Anthropology in a Global Age\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments     ix\u003cbr\u003e Introduction     1\u003cbr\u003e INTERLUDE I: CULTURE SHOCK     31\u003cbr\u003e 1     Afro-Paradise: Where the Whip Tears the Flesh     41\u003cbr\u003e INTERLUDE II: \"THE BERLIN WALL\"     71\u003cbr\u003e 2     The Paradox of Black Citizenship     77\u003cbr\u003e INTERLUDE III: \"TERRORISM\"     113\u003cbr\u003e 3     The White Hand: State Magic and Signs of War     117\u003cbr\u003e INTERLUDE IV: \"THE POLICE RAID\"     153\u003cbr\u003e 4     Palimpsestic Embodiment     155\u003cbr\u003e INTERLUDE V: REPRISE     177\u003cbr\u003e 5     In and Out of the Ineffable     179\u003cbr\u003e Appendix: Methodology and Timing     207\u003cbr\u003e Notes     213\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography     231\u003cbr\u003e Index     251\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49400500912471,"sku":"9780252081446","price":18.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780252081446.jpg?v=1730470836","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/afroparadise-9780252081446","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}